Panther boys pull away late in home opener

Posted 1/14/25

After taking a couple of weeks off for winter break, the Powell Panther boys’ basketball team experienced highs and lows in the first home game of the season, pulling away in the second half …

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Panther boys pull away late in home opener

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After taking a couple of weeks off for winter break, the Powell Panther boys’ basketball team experienced highs and lows in the first home game of the season, pulling away in the second half for a 50-30 win over visiting Rocky Mountain.

    

POWELL 50, ROCKY MOUNTAIN 30

Kicking off the new year at home the Panthers (6-1) welcomed in the Grizz (4-6) to Powell High School on Thursday.

Early offense from the Panthers helped them hold an 8-4 lead midway through, before building a 14-7 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Both teams struggled to find the hoop early in the second, causing a timeout from the visitors two minutes in with the score at 16-9.

Powell’s offense responded out of the timeout, and an Abel Teten 3-pointer made it a 21-11 game with five minutes left in the half.

Powell extended the lead slightly before the halftime break, leading 26-13 at the half behind eight points each from Keona Wisniewski and Alex Jordan.

Baskets were few and far between for both teams in the third quarter, with each team only putting up eight as the Panthers led 34-21 going into the final frame.

“Our offense against Rocky was really good at times and really sluggish at times,” coach Mike Heny said. “Defense is always something we emphasize constantly for stretches in games just like the third quarter against Rocky. We weren’t clicking on offense, so you have to get stops to keep the score from getting away from you when the shots aren’t falling.”

Early in the fourth quarter the Grizz cut the lead down to 34-26 with five minutes remaining, before the Panther offense put the game away for good.

Starting with a Jaxon Hancock basket, the Panthers went on a 14-2 run over the next three minutes, capped off by another Hancock putback with just under two minutes remaining to make it 48-28.

“Once the lead got to eight, I felt like the kids got refocused and we were able to push the lead back to 15 very quickly. I like to let the players work things out at times by themselves in different situations and I felt like they did that for the most part once Rocky had cut the lead to single digits,” Heny said.

Powell finished the final two minutes behind its bench for the 50-30 win to open the new year.

Hancock finished with a 14 point, 12 rebound double double, with Jordan close behind with 14 points and eight rebounds.

Wisniewski finished with 10 points and tied for the team lead in steals with four alongside Jordan.

Hancock added two blocks in the victory.

   

BIG HORN BASIN CLASSIC

The Powell boys will stay at home this weekend, welcoming in teams from around the state for the Big Horn Basin Classic.

Powell High School will be hosting alongside Rocky Mountain, with both sites hosting two pools on Friday before teams advance to bracket play on Saturday.

The Panthers will kick off their weekend at 1:30 p.m. Friday against 1A Burlington (5-5 overall, 2-0 1A Northwest) before playing 3A East Glenrock (5-3 overall, 0-1 3A East) at 7:30 p.m.

“We will continue to try and get better at what we do well and improve those areas that teams are taking advantage of,” Heny said. “We’ll continue to work on cleaning up some issues on defense in both the half court and in transition. Offensively we need to focus on taking the right shots and knocking them down when we have wide open looks. Our best basketball is still ahead of us and we’ll need to be at our best this weekend if we hope to advance past some extremely talented teams.”

All varsity contests will be in the main gym with a majority of varsity games preceded by a junior varsity game in the auxiliary gym.

If Powell is the top seed in its pool then it will advance to a semifinal contest at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday in Powell. If Powell is the No. 2 seed it will play at 11 a.m. and if it is the No. 3 seed the Panthers will play at 2 p.m.

The championship game will be at 4:30 p.m. Saturday at PHS unless Rocky Mountain is in the championship and the Panthers are not.

    

POWELL 50, ROCKY MOUNTAIN 30

Total rebounds then offensive rebounds in ()

Points — Jaxon Hancock 14, Alex Jordan 14, Keona Wisniewski 10, Nathan Preator 4, Evan Whitlock 3, Abel Teten 3, Taeson Schultz 2

Rebounds — Jaxon Hancock 12 (7), Alex Jordan 8 (3), Nathan Preator 6 (3), Evan Whitlock 4 (2), Keona Wisniewski 2, Dawson Griffin 2 (1), Brady Harvey 1

Assists — Nathan Preator 3, Alex Jordan 3, Evan Whitlock 2, Dawson Griffin 2, Keona Wisniewski 1, Brady Harvey 1

Steals — Keona Wisniewski 4, Alex Jordan 4, Nathan Preator 2, Evan Whitlock 1, Dawson Griffin 1

Blocks — Jaxon Hancock 2

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