Powell boys start basketball season 2-1

Beat Rawlins, Douglas, fall to Buffalo

Posted 12/17/19

A year ago, the Powell High School boys basketball team dropped three straight games to Buffalo, Rawlins and Douglas to open the season. It was a different story on Friday and Saturday, however, as …

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Powell boys start basketball season 2-1

Beat Rawlins, Douglas, fall to Buffalo

Posted

A year ago, the Powell High School boys basketball team dropped three straight games to Buffalo, Rawlins and Douglas to open the season. It was a different story on Friday and Saturday, however, as the Panthers opened their 2019-20 campaign by taking two out of three from the same opponents. PHS head coach Chase Kistler called it “a great start.”

Powell began with a 63-57 loss to Buffalo on Friday afternoon in Lovell, then rebounded with a 65-51 win over Douglas on Friday evening and a 54-45 victory against Rawlins on Saturday afternoon.

Kistler said his team has a long way to go, needing to improve on many little things on both offense and defense.

“But for the most part I was pleased with the way we played all three games,” the coach said. “Definitely not the outcome I wanted on the first one [against Buffalo], but I’m pleased knowing that the talent’s there, the skill level’s there and now it’s just kind of tweaking and getting better at ... the fundamental stuff.”

 

Buffalo 63, Powell 57

The Bison managed to get a little bit of revenge from last year’s state tournament, where the Panthers shocked Buffalo in the Class 3A semifinals.

In the first quarter on Friday, the Bison jumped out to a 16-7 lead.

The change in speed from practice to facing off against one of the state’s top teams “kind of shocked us a little bit,” Kistler said. “But once we kind of got settled down and got into the flow of things, I thought we really kind of controlled the game for the most part — until the very end.”

A pair of 3-pointers from Landon Lengfelder helped kickstart the Panther offense early in the second quarter and Mason Marchant drew the Panthers even at 21-21 about halfway through the period.

With a little over a minute left in the half, Jesse Brown hit a pair of free throws to put Powell up 27-25 at the break; he hit 6-of-7 free throws in the quarter.

However, Buffalo came out of the locker room on a 7-0 run and led 40-36 by the end of the third quarter.

The Panthers briefly regained the lead in the fourth, 47-46, when Marchant knocked down two free throws with about 5:20 remaining. However, Buffalo took the lead for good a short time later and held on to win 63-57.

“Their physicality just kind of got to us over the course of the game,” Kistler said. “But for being one of the first games of the year, not bad.”

Lengfelder paced PHS with 19 points, followed by 13 from Mason Marchant. Aidan Jacobsen and Adrian Geller each had eight points, while Brown had seven and Jaden Marchant two.

The Panthers finished 17 of 43 from the floor and 18 of 22 from the free throw line.

Geller had a team-best six rebounds, followed by Brown with five; Mason Marchant had five assists.

 

Powell 65, Douglas 51

It was an easier battle against Douglas on Friday evening, as the PHS boys got out to a 7-1 lead and never looked back. The Panthers led 33-21 at halftime and won 65-51.

Against Douglas, and later against Rawlins, “I thought we really just kind of controlled the game,” Kistler said, adding, “I was very pleased with how we bounced back and the intensity was a lot higher for us.”

Four Panthers hit double digits in scoring: Mason Marchant had 14 points, Geller scored 12, Trevor Groves 11 and Brown 10.

Lengfelder chipped in eight, with Jacobsen and Jaden Marchant each scoring four points.

The team shot 26 of 53 from the floor and 8 of 15 at the free throw line.

Brown grabbed eight boards, while Lengfelder and Mason Marchant had five; Mason Marchant added five assists, while his brother Jaden had four assists, rebounds and steals.

 

Powell 54, Rawlins 45

Saturday’s matchup with Rawlins did not get off to a promising start for the Panthers, as the Outlaws jumped out to a 31-21 first-half lead.

That advantage would crumble in the third quarter, though, as the Powell boys chipped away. Three straight points from Mason Marchant in the closing minute of the period put Powell up 39-37.

The Panthers went on to create some separation from the Outlaws: A trey from Lengfelder — who had nine points in the final quarter — pushed Powell’s lead to seven, 48-41, about midway through the fourth. Rawlins sank a basket to make it a five-point game, but Lengfelder came right back with another bucket and the Outlaws never got any closer.

Mason Marchant broke out for 22 points, hitting his third straight game in double figures.

“He’s turned into a very consistent kind of player,” Kistler said.

Lengfelder added 16 points, Geller eight, Brown five, Groves two and Jacobsen one. Brown again led the team in rebounding, with seven boards, followed by six each from Mason Marchant and Geller and five from Lengfelder, who had five steals.

The Panthers went 22 of 50 from the floor and 9 of 18 from the line.

Kistler praised the play of the entire Panther bench over the weekend, along with Jacobsen, who “did a great job.”

Meanwhile, Geller’s ability to play bigger than his 6-foot, 1-inch frame even drew a compliment from an opposing coach.

“He’s very physical, he plays hard, his motor never stops,” Kistler said, adding that the same goes for Brown.

“Jesse [Brown] just plays so hard so fast, that I think he’s capable of putting up double digit points every night, too,” the coach said.

Before hitting the Christmas break, the Powell boys will head to Cody on Friday night for a rivalry game with the 4A Broncs. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.

Powell High School, Panther Basketball

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