In the first home game of the season, the Powell High School Lady Panthers basketball team beat Lovell 46-37 on Thursday.

“I thought it was a good win,” said head coach Scott McKenzie. “Lovell is a nice team.”

With 5:40 remaining in the first quarter, Lovell took a 6-5 lead, but the Lady Panthers shut down the Lady Bulldogs. PHS went on a 14-0 run to lead 19-6 going into the second quarter.

At halftime the score was 26-19, Powell.

In the third quarter, Lovell battled back to tie the game up at 28-28 with 3:07 remaining. However, PHS responded to grab a 33-28 lead going into the fourth quarter.

“I thought the girls really buckled in and got back to work at that point to get the lead back,” coach McKenzie said.

Powell went on to win the game, 46-37.

“That’ll help us down the road, being able to do that early in the year,” coach McKenzie said of the Lady Panthers battling back to win the game after the tie.

Overall, coach McKenzie said, “I thought that we played really smart.”

Powell only had 13 turnovers for the game.

Rachel Bonander had a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds — eight on defense and three on offense. It marked the third game out of the four played in which Bonander had a double-double. Bonander also led the team in steals with three.

Aubrie Stenerson also scored in double digits with 14 points and had three blocked shots, six rebounds (split evenly between offense and defense) and completed a 3-point shot.

Three other Lady Panthers also scored 3-pointers: Maddy Hanks, Katie McKenzie and Ashtyn Heny.

“Four different girls hitting from the perimeter is another plus for us,” coach McKenzie said. Having that many players who can shoot a 3-pointer will open up some options as the season progresses, he said.

Hanks had four assists for the game and Karlie McKenzie had three.

“When both of them can contribute with those assists, its just as good as scoring in our opinion,” coach McKenzie said. “I thought they both did a nice job of delivering the ball in there where it needed to be.”

The team had a total of 13 assists.

The Lady Panthers also shot 67 percent from the free throw line.

“We’re getting closer,” said coach McKenzie, as the team’s goal is to shoot 70 percent from the charity stripe.

Powell also shot 29 percent from the arc and 44 percent from inside the arc.

“Happy to be 3-1 going into Christmas for sure,” coach McKenzie said.

The Lady Panthers are off for the winter break and will return to action at the Big Horn Basin Classic on Jan. 5 and 6. There will not be an alumni basketball game over this winter break.