In a difficult rivalry contest  Thursday the Powell High School boys’ basketball team lost 54-50 to Cody before rebounding with a 67-56 win on the road against Worland on Friday.

CODY 54, POWELL 50

Beginning on Thursday the Panthers (11-2 overall, 1-1 3A West) took on the Broncs (4-9 overall, 1-1 3A West).

Powell started strong behind two 3-pointers by Taeson Schultz to lead 6-2, but Cody ramped up the pressure and forced early turnovers to force a timeout midway through.

“Cody’s press is designed to take you out of transition and force you to make mistakes, which we unfortunately did too many times on Thursday,” coach Mike Heny said. “A lot of those turnovers came from deflections on our passes when we weren’t tough enough with the ball … We’ll learn from it, and I need to do a better job putting kids in those types of situations during the week to ensure we move better without the ball and create better spacing to get the ball into our offense and avoid those live ball turnovers that cost us.”

That pressure mixed with some size inside allowed the Broncs to capture the lead 12-9 after the first quarter.

Caden Nelson’s steal and layup tied it at 14 with 5:30 remaining, and an Abel Teten 3-pointer restored the lead shortly after 17-16.

That led to a 7-0 run overall capped by another Nelson steal and layup to give Powell a 21-16 lead with 3:15 left in the second quarter.

Cody rallied to tie it at 23, before Powell ended the half with another Nelson layup to lead 25-23 at the break.

Powell maintained its lead throughout much of the third quarter, but turnovers late in the quarter gave Cody life as the Broncs took the lead 37-36 with 1:30 left.

That slim advantage held 39-38 going into the fourth quarter.

Back-and-forth the two teams went, as neither team pulled ahead by more than a possession throughout much of the fourth quarter.

Free throws reared their ugly head for both teams, as a late layup and a turnover led to another bucket to make it 51-48 Cody with a minute left.

“Missing free throws and empty possessions in a close game always come back to haunt a team, especially during conference play. However, those are things we can easily correct. It’s comforting knowing we could have easily won that game if we just take care of the ball and capitalize on more opportunities against their pressure late in the game,” Heny said. “Despite how poorly we handled the ball, we still had a number of chances to come away with a win; Cody made the plays and we didn’t. We’ll learn from it and hopefully do better the next time we see them.”

Powell couldn’t get a good shot and Cody went 1-2 at the line to make it 52-48, but a Schultz layup made it 52-50 with 13 seconds left and a timeout by Powell.

The Panthers had to foul, and Cody finally went 2-2 to seal it 54-50 as 21 turnovers proved to be fatal to Powell.

Schultz and Nathan Preator led with 15 points each and Teten added 10.

Preator led with seven rebounds, Nelson and Schultz had three assists each, Nelson had four steals and he and Preator each had a block.

POWELL 67, WORLAND 56

Heading to Worland on Friday, the Panthers needed a win against the Warriors (5-8 overall, 0-2 3A West) to avoid an 0-2 conference start.

Early on both teams exchanged buckets and were tied 8-8, before an 11-0 Powell run ended the first quarter and the Panthers led 19-8 heading into the second.

“It’s always nice to get off to a good shooting start when you’re on the road. Worland is a tough place to play and it’s great to take the crowd out of the game early in the contest,” Heny said.

Worland cut into the lead slightly, but a Kason Sherman 3-pointer made it 27-17 midway through the second and forced a Warrior timeout.

Powell’s effort on the offensive glass helped build its halftime advantage, as a late Schultz basket made it 33-21 at the half.

The Panthers started the second half strong, but an extended run by Worland cut the lead down to 40-30 midway through.

Worland kept pushing, and cut the lead down to single digits at 45-39 heading into the fourth.

Powell held its advantage 56-48 midway through the fourth quarter, before pulling away late at the line for a 67-56 win.

“Other than the third quarter, I was extremely proud of how the kids fought against Worland after a disappointing result the night before. Some of our turnover and rebounding issues surfaced in that third quarter but the kids settled down and executed well in the fourth and they were able to pull away for the win,” Heny said. “We got a lot of contributions from everyone since we were without Caden … We wanted to start 2-0 but getting the split in two tough road games was a major boost for us going forward. Any conference road win is big and we really needed the win against Worland to make sure we didn’t dig ourselves an early hole in the conference standings.”

Preator led in all categories, tying for the team lead in points alongside Landon Hyde at 18, while adding 10 rebounds, seven assists, five steals and the lone block of the game.

BUSY WEEK

Powell now has a busy week with two different types of games on the schedule starting with a game at Lovell (11-2 overall, 2-0 3A West) at 7 p.m. on Thursday.

“Lovell is a really good team and it will take a solid effort from everyone if we want to give ourselves a chance on Thursday,” Heny said. “They don’t have a lot of weaknesses, so we’re really going to need to play mistake free for the most part in all three areas. We’ll continue to work on our defensive rotations when we are faced with teams that have multiple bigs. We’re also going to need to be more patient at times on offense in order to limit our turnovers and take advantage of some favorable matchups.”

The Panthers then host Buffalo (6-5 overall, 3-1 3A East) on Friday at 7 p.m. in their final nonconference game of the season.