The Powell High School girls’ basketball team ran away with another pair of victories at home against cross-quadrant opponents, defeating Mountain View 59-19 on Friday and Lyman 51-31 on Saturday to win a fifth straight game and 12 of the last 13.

POWELL 59, MOUNTAIN VIEW 19

Starting the weekend the Panthers (13-4 overall, 4-1 3A West) welcomed in a rebuilding squad in the Buffalos (3-12 overall, 0-5 3A West).

Powell got off to a strong start, getting an 8-3 lead behind four points each from Shelby Zickefoose and Emery Hernandez and forcing a timeout from the visitors.

The Panthers continued pressing early, using their speed and defense to build a 21-4 advantage heading into the second quarter.

“Mountain View is struggling this year because it’s a rebuilding year, and on top of that they’ve had some injuries,” coach Chelsea Kistler said. “We were able to kind of expose those weaknesses early, because of the youth and inexperience that they had on the floor.”

The Panthers pushed their advantage over 20 early in the second, and eventually led 33-6 with 3:25 left in the half.

Powell made it a 36-8 advantage at the break, behind four 3-pointers and 14 points by Coy Erickson.

Kindyle Floy’s 3-pointers early in the second half pushed the lead over 30, and Powell led 42-8 and forced a timeout from Mountain View with 6:21 left in the third.

“Whenever one of our shooters catches fire it just snowballs and gives everybody else confidence,” Kistler said. “Sometimes it’s hard to stay hot all game long. So when somebody else gets hot, the girls are doing a really good job of finding that hot hand and keep feeding it until it’s not hot anymore.”

Powell held a 44-12 lead midway through the third, and eventually the lead hit 40 on a Hernandez steal and layup in the fourth quarter at 55-14 as the Panthers cruised to the 59-19 win despite not shooting a free throw the entire contest.

Floy led with 15, just ahead of Hernandez and Erickson who both had 14.

Leah Graham led with eight rebounds, Erickson provided nine assists, Hernandez had six of the 17 steals for the Panthers as Hali Hancock and Graham had one block each.

POWELL 51, LYMAN 32

On Saturday the Panthers welcomed in the Eagles (9-5 overall, 1-4 3A West).

Powell fell behind 5-0 early, before Zickefoose ended the cold start midway through.

Powell regained its footing and took the lead 8-7 heading into the second quarter.

“Lyman’s game plan was to try to muddy the water and slow it down,” Kistler said. “They don’t want to have to play that fast-paced running game with us.”

The Panthers started causing problems for the visitors, stretching the lead to 15-9 with 3:29 remaining after a Hernandez steal and layup to force a timeout by the Eagles.

Powell kept pushing, and a Floy 3-pointer with 40 seconds left made it 24-12 as that scoreline held at the break.

The Panther press started  forcing the Eagles into more turnovers, as Powell led 34-16 with 3:24 left in the third and forced a timeout by the visitors.

“That was what we talked about at halftime, is how we need to speed them up and make them play our game rather than playing at their pace,” Kistler said. “I felt like we executed that well.”

An Erickson 3-pointer finally pushed the lead over 20, as Powell led 42-20 after the third.

The lead hit 25 midway through the fourth quarter, as Powell cruised to another win 51-32.

Hernandez led with 18 points, as Floy had 12 and Erickson added 10.

Zickefoose led with six rebounds, Erickson led with six assists and tied for the team lead with Floy with four steals each.

WORLAND FRIDAY

Powell continues its run of home games this week, welcoming in Worland (6-11 overall, 0-5 3A West) at 5:30 p.m. on Friday to start the second half of 3A Northwest play.

“We had a slow start (in Worland) and I felt like we didn’t really get going until the second half,” Kistler said. “Hopefully this go-around we come right out of the gates and play our game. Make them play at the pace that we want to play at.”

While the Panthers have won five in a row and 12 of 13 including 10 of 11 since the new year, Kistler is still hopeful the best basketball is still ahead for her team.

“Each and every one of the girls are gaining more confidence in what they do well. Nobody tries to play outside of their game. Everybody tries to do what they feel like they bring the best to the team. I just feel like every game they continue to gel more and more together,” Kistler said. “We’re playing really good basketball right now, but I still don’t know if it’s our best. I think that we still have room to grow. We’ll continue to push that envelope as we finish up the season so that we are playing our best basketball come postseason.”

POWELL 59, MOUNTAIN VIEW 19

Total rebounds then offensive rebounds in ()

Points — Kindyle Floy 15, Emery Hernandez 14, Coy Erickson 14, Leah Graham 8, Shelby Zickefoose 4, Hali Hancock 2, Sam Edgell 2

Rebounds — Leah Graham 8 (5), Kindyle Floy 6 (6), Hali Hancock 4, Coy Erickson 3, Shelby Zickefoose 3 (1), Emery Hernandez 2 (2), Sam Edgell 1 (1), Autumn Kidd 1

Assists — Coy Erickson 9, Emery Hernandez 5, Hali Hancock 3, Leah Graham 2, Kindyle Floy 2

Steals — Emery Hernandez 6, Coy Erickson 4, Kindyle Floy 2, Hali Hancock 1, Shelby Zickefoose 1, Leah Graham 1, Sam Edgell 1, Autumn Kidd 1

Blocks — Hali Hancock 1, Leah Graham 1

POWELL 51, LYMAN 32

Points — Emery Hernandez 18, Kindyle Floy 12, Coy Erickson 10, Shelby Zickefoose 6, Leah Graham 2, Autumn Kidd 2, Hali Hancock 1

Rebounds — Shelby Zickefoose 6 (2), Hali Hancock 4 (2), Emery Hernandez 3 (1), Leah Graham 3, Kindyle Floy 1 (1)

Assists — Coy Erickson 6, Emery Hernandez 4, Kindyle Floy 2, Hali Hancock 1, Leah Graham 1

Steals — Coy Erickson 4, Kindyle Floy 4, Emery Hernandez 2, Shelby Zickefoose 2