A strong season had the Powell High School freshman boys’ basketball team riding high going into the freshman tournament in Worland to end their season. However, late season injuries led to the Panthers going 2-2 in the tournament and finishing the season 16-6.

At the tournament, the Panthers defeated Burlington in their first game and advanced to face Buffalo in the second round.

The Panthers had already defeated the Bison twice during the regular season, but were without the services of Zane Graft. Graft was an important inside presence for the team, but an injury the previous night in a junior varsity game left him unable to play, Panther coach Greg Stenlund said.

Buffalo beat the Panthers — and the Powell team also lost their other inside presence, Alex Jordan, to injury as well.

Still, the Panthers rebounded to beat Wyoming Indian in the loser’s bracket, in what Stenlund called “one of the weirdest games they have ever played.”

Powell continued their advance in the loser’s bracket and matched up with Burlington again. This time, the Huskies got the better of the Panthers, who were without Graft and Jordan.

“If we had Graft and A.J. [Jordan], then we probably beat Buffalo and play for the championship, but that’s why you play games and stuff happens,” Stenlund said.

The coach said his team was easy to work with throughout the year, being led in scoring by Jordan, Evan Whitlock, Keona Wisniewski and Dawson Griffin, with consistent scoring and rebounding output from Graft.

Stenlund said the freshman team made an easy transition to the physicality of the high school game, and having his players play up at the junior varsity level helped the squad even more.

“I love having my players play up at the JV level,” Stenlund said. “For them it slows the freshman game down, and three of them started playing the JV level immediately.”

He said the team was able to improve throughout the season as they competed against both the JV and varsity in practice.

The ability to practice against the higher levels allowed the team to perform against better competition, and Stenlund said that at times the freshmen would surprise the higher levels, stopping them on defense and get a basket.

“They compete against the varsity and if they don’t raise their game, then they get destroyed,” Stenlund said. “I love that element of our practices and I think that makes our program better.”

A promising season for the Panthers came up just short of a championship, but Stenlund felt his team made the strides to help the program moving forward.