Despite a shorter season due to cancellations, the Powell Panther freshman boys’ basketball team learned plenty in its first season of high school action, finishing with a 6-7 record.

“We had two tournaments that we normally compete at that we did not this year,” coach Greg Stenlund said. “The first one was canceled and the second one we were unable to attend due to snowy roads.”

The Panthers were able to muster wins over each of their conference foes this season, getting wins over Cody, Lovell and Worland.

Along with those wins came some difficult losses, as the Panthers ended the season 0-3 in contests that went to overtime.

Leading the Panthers this season was Karcher Foley, who Stenlund said was typically the team’s leading scorer, putting up more than 20 points in several games according to unofficial stats.

“We do not track stats for freshman or JV games; however, he was certainly our leader in assists and steals as well,” Stendlund said.

He said that Braxton Nelson was also one of the top options for the Panthers, using his athleticism to help lead the charge.

“He has an impressive vertical leap for a freshman and even dunked it during warmups several times,” Stenlund said. “In one of our games he had 10 blocks which is an amazing number of blocks in a single game.”

One of the team’s most improved players was Tucker Muecke, who continually grew his game in each area.

“He was not outstanding in any one area, but just kept getting better in all phases of the game,” Stenlund said. “He ended up being one of the best players in the right position most of the time both offensively and defensively.”

Despite having an athletic team this season, Stenlund said that one of the areas that the Panthers need to improve on the most going forward is in the mental aspect of the game, especially in communication and pressure situations.

“Too many times this year they were in the incorrect position whether it was on defense, offense or out-of-bounds plays,” Stenlund said. “In practice we drilled ‘help defense’ over and over and I would still have players out of position at the end of the season. Another example was not being calm in pressure situations. We literally lost probably two or three games this year due to panicking and making the wrong decision in high pressure times in games. As a team they have some great physical skills and abilities, but need to improve their game between the ears.”

Stenlund said one main thing he learned this year as a coach is that he needs to be more detailed in his coaching of the game, such as breaking down individual parts of the game before working on the whole skill.

“I don’t know what has happened, but mostly I don’t think players work on basketball in the offseason as much as they used to,” Stenlund said. “Perhaps there are too many video games, or they only work on the parts of the game they like to, instead of their left-handed layups and ball handling.”

He added that it was a fun group to coach overall, but unfortunately didn’t get to coach one player who suffered an injury before getting to play in a game.

“They supported each other and kept up good effort even though our record was not the best,” Stenlund said. “I feel bad that Gianreye D’Alessandro got injured before he could ever play in a game. He would have been a difference maker on the defensive end of the court and would have been a good leader in the huddle. He is a good thinker and would have helped the mental side of the game for our team.”