One year ago the Powell Middle School girls’ basketball team finished the season with a conference championship, but was one game short of going undefeated at 14-1 after an early season loss to Cody.

“Last year they lost one to Cody so we thought we would try and up that this year and go all the way,” coach Dale Estes said. “There was pressure this year knowing how well they did last year. It was nothing less than conference champions and then wanting to go undefeated, even though I knew we should do it, I felt a little bit of pressure this year.”

This time around the eighth grade Cubs got over the Cody hurdle, finishing with an undefeated 20-0 record while outscoring opponents by more than 20 points per game.

Early on in the season the Cubs came out firing, winning by just over an average of 19 points per game over Laurel, Riverton, Lander, Lovell, Burlington, Worland and Thermopolis. In that stretch, the closest game for the team was a 14-point win over Lovell.

The first test of the season came on the road at Cody, where a poor finishing night at the rim had Powell in trouble and close to losing a contest.

Powell escaped, earning a hard fought 28-26 win.

“We missed a lot of layups,” Estes said.

Additional games this season came over the mountain, starting with matchups against Buffalo and Sheridan where the Cubs won 41-34 and 38-21 respectively.

The strong run of games continued, with Powell defeating Lovell, Rocky Mountain, Thermopolis and Worland before the second matchup against Cody.

Defensive intensity came in the second matchup, and the Cubs dominated their rivals to the tune of a 29-1 lead early in the fourth quarter, finishing with a 31-9 win.

“I was hoping we would do well, but not as well as we did,” Estes said.

Heading back over the mountain the Cubs played two close contests but escaped after come-from-behind wins against Tongue River 32-21 and 31-27 over Big Horn.

“It was a good experience for the girls to have to come from behind in both games and win,” Estes said. “That was good practice just before our tournament.”

In the conference tournament, Powell ran past Lander 46-15 and Shoshoni 64-20 before matching up with Lovell for the third time in the championship.

Finishing the season on a high note the Cubs finished with a double-digit win 47-33, their 17th of the season.

Over the course of the year the team scored over 40 points in half of the 20 games, with an average offensive output of 40.5 points compared to giving up 20.1.

Powell gained the upper hand throughout the season through a strong full court press that led to easy baskets for the speedy Cubs.

“This group really liked to run the floor and press,” Estes said. “They are really good at transition on the fast break, getting the ball going the other way.”

Estes said the team performed well in the half-court offense, but became impatient at times before finding the right shot.

“Shooting was a struggle for us most every game,” Estes said. 

He said that defensively the Cubs were strong, while also rebounding well on both the offensive and defensive ends.

Leading the press as the guards were Kindyle Floy, Jesi Agee and Veronica Kovach, who helped lead the team to steals while forwards Autumn Kidd and Stella Shoopman helped intercept passes down the court.

“We had some good speed with Kindyle and Jesi,” Estes said.

Serving as a sixth man for the team was Sam Edgell, who came off the bench for the Cubs and served as one of the stronger shooters on the team as well.

He said the team also had a lot of strong athletes who didn’t have a lot of experience playing basketball.

“Some of them had good speed, could jump and hustle really well,” Estes said. “Basketball is one of those sports where you have to practice some in the offseason, you can’t just show up and expect it to happen in eight weeks.”

Progressing on the team included Kovach, who Estes said improved in ball-handling and defensively as she needed to step up at times throughout the season.

He noted that players in particular who improved the most on the team throughout the season were Addy Brown and Peyton Ott.