CODY — Powell High School’s girls basketball team got a quick start to the 2014-15 season.

In their first quarter, the Lady Panthers put up 21 points while holding their opponent, Newcastle, to five.

“We just put the gas on them from the get-go,” said head coach Scott McKenzie, calling it good basketball for the start of the year.

The Lady Panthers played a trio of teams from Class 3A East at Cody’s East-West Classic: they drubbed Newcastle 61-26 on Friday afternoon, lost to Rawlins 55-38 on Saturday morning, then beat Wheatland 43-30 that evening.

“I was pleased with our unselfishness of sharing the basketball. I was pleased with our rebounding,” McKenzie said, “And I think that our turnovers — which comes with just playing more — need to come down a little bit.”

“Preseason is what it is,” he added. “These girls will work hard to get better.”

McKenzie said the girls put tremendous defensive pressure on Newcastle in the opener.

“We really gave them fits,” he said.

The Lady Panthers came up with 24 steals while only turning the ball over 10 times — one of the best ratios McKenzie can recall in his years of coaching.

“You’re going to win with that ratio,” he said.

It was 39-11 PHS at the half and Newcastle never got into the game.

Junior Breanna Donarski led the team with 16 points, eight steals and seven rebounds. Sophomore Kalina Smith followed with 13 points, another eight steals, five rebounds and also set a PHS record with eight blocks in the game. She had 15 blocks over the weekend while junior Anissa Warner had five.

“We’ll hopefully be talking about that (blocks) a lot this year,” said McKenzie, adding, “That’s a game-changer.”

Junior Danna Hanks had nine points and six rebounds against Newcastle, while Warner had seven points and five rebounds. Sophomore Jennifer Bonander had five points, fellow sophomore Dani Asay added four, senior Jenni Ebersberger had three (plus five assists) and senior Megan Wagner and junior Richelle Phister each had two points.

“We had almost everyone score,” noted McKenzie.

PHS shot 23 of 56 (41 percent) from the floor and 10 of 19 (53 percent) from the free throw line.

As for Saturday morning’s contest, “the story for Rawlins was we had 23 turnovers,” McKenzie said. The coach guessed the turnovers translated to around 20 points for PHS’ opponent.

Powell hung with Rawlins for the first quarter, trailing just 12-10. But the Lady Outlaws capitalized on the turnovers to outscore PHS 17-9 in the second quarter and 10-4 in the third to open up a commanding 16-point lead.

McKenzie said that when Powell was able to break Rawlins’ pressure, “we didn’t get into any sort of offense. I thought we kind of just used our athleticism and freelanced a little bit.”

PHS went just 14 of 47 from the floor (30 percent) and 7 of 15 (47 percent) from the free throw line.

“We learned we have to take care of the ball, we learned we have to execute,” McKenzie said.

Donarski led with 15 points and six steals. Hanks added in seven points and a team-best seven rebounds. Warner and Asay each chipped in four points, Phister and Smith each scored three and Bonander had two.

Smith had six rebounds and Donarski and Wagner added five boards a piece.

Ebersberger missed the game due to a family member’s graduation ceremony.

In Saturday night’s contest, Wheatland grabbed a 9-5 lead late in the first quarter.

But the Lady Panthers responded by closing out the half on a 16-2 run — capped by an Ebersberger basket that just beat the second quarter buzzer.

Wheatland briefly cut the lead to six in the third quarter, then again to seven, but both times, Powell quashed any Lady Bulldog comeback with baskets in response.

“It was a nice bounce-back game for us to come away from the tournament 2-1,” McKenzie said, crediting strong defensive pressure once again.

Ebersberger led PHS with 16 points and six steals. Donarski had eight points, Smith six, Wagner four, Phister added three and Hanks, Warner and Asay had two each.

As a team, PHS shot 17 of 48 (35 percent) from the floor and 8 of 18 (44 percent) from the free throw line.

Wagner had a team-best nine rebounds, with Donarski and Hanks each adding in seven.

McKenzie said making more free throws and better execution on offense will be points of focus in practice this week.

As for defense, the girls gave up an average of 37 points over the weekend and McKenzie thinks PHS would like to keep that figure around 35.

“Each girl has a role on the team and those roles will start to shake out as this week plays out and I think things will become more clear for us as the girls learn and accept their roles,” the coach said.

This weekend, the girls will venture over the Big Horn Mountains. They’ll meet Buffalo, another foe from Class 3A East, at 7:30 p.m. Friday. They’ll face a stiff test Saturday when they head north to face Sheridan, the No. 1 ranked team in Class 4A, at 1 p.m.

“These games are all preparation games for after Christmas,” said McKenzie. “It’s a great schedule and we’re going to going to take the opportunity to play two tough teams in two tough gyms.”