The Powell High School freshman girls’ basketball team achieved a near-perfect season, as they defeated Worland on Saturday to take home the freshman tournament title.

The team included six players who played in every game — Anneliese Peterson, Kenna Jacobsen, Alexa Richardson, Kodee Asay, Cami Gernhart and Ava Stearns — plus Catelynn Floy and Saige Kidd, who played in select games.

Despite only having a half-dozen players in most games, the young Panther squad used a high pressure defense mixed with a fast transition game to blow past opponents throughout the season. 

The team finished 17-2. The two losses were to the Wyoming Indian junior varsity team and a low scoring game to Cody on the road, where two players fouled out and the Panthers were forced to play short.

“We truly had a team mentality,” PHS freshman coach Andrew Borcher said. “This group of six players bought into the mindset of playing together. At any one point of the season, I could have mentioned a standout player or players that helped us win and each time it would have been someone different.”

During Saturday’s freshman tournament in Worland, the Panthers started out strong by defeating Wyoming Indian, 36-13. That set up a semifinal matchup with Worland.

The Panther offense started out slowly, but found its rhythm throughout the contest as they defeated Worland 34-17 to advance to the championship game.

Worland’s Warriors worked their way back through the lower bracket to set up a rematch, but the Panthers ran away with a 48-25 victory to take the title.

“This group was fun to coach,” Borcher said. “They had a lot of good skills coming into this year and improved upon those skills.”

Borcher said the team’s confidence grew throughout the season with the more game time experience each player got; that led to each player’s individual confidence growing.

Both on and off the court, the players continued to impress Borcher, as they continually cheered each other on and bonded while on the road throughout the season.

“This group also had a knack for gift giving, and I received some interesting gifts over the season,” Borcher said. “It’s those things that I cherish the most over the wins and losses, but to finish the season the way we did was the cherry on top.”