The Powell High School girls’ basketball team has averaged 14.9 turnovers per game thus far in the season, but after a pair of losses at home last weekend against Mountain View and Lyman, that average is due to rise.

The Lady Panthers had 23 turnovers in each game, a factor in both losses. Powell lost to Mountain View 47-33 and Lyman 49-36.

“The whole weekend, turnovers was our problem,” said PHS head coach Scott McKenzie.

Mountain View 47, Lady Panthers 33

“We just never could get with them,” coach McKenzie said  of Friday’s loss to Mountain View. “We dug a hole and it stayed that way the whole game.”

The Lady Panthers trailed 19-13 after the first quarter, and the Lady Buffaloes increased the lead to 29-18 at halftime.

In the third quarter, Mountain View outscored Powell 11-5 to lead 40-23 going into the final quarter of play. During the fourth quarter, Powell bounced back to hold the Lady Buffaloes to their lowest scoring quarter of the game — seven points — while scoring 10 points themselves. However, the hole the Lady Panthers dug for themselves during the first three quarters proved to be too much to overcome and Mountain View held on for the win.

“They shot the ball really well, credit to them. They came in and shot the ball really well at our place,” coach McKenzie said of Mountain View. “We were just out of position defensively a lot in this game. We were just out of sync, for sure.”

The Lady Buffaloes made a total of seven 3-pointers throughout the game. For the season, Mountain View has an average of five 3-point baskets per game.

Powell made a total of four 3-pointers and has a season average of 3.4 per game.

Two of PHS’ baskets from beyond the arc came from Aubrie Stenerson with one each from Karlie McKenzie and Brea Terry.

As a team, the Lady Panthers shot 24 percent from the arc, 30 percent from inside the arc and 54 percent from the free throw line.

“That’s just not a good night for us,” coach McKenzie said of the shooting percentages.

Rachel Bonander had a double-double with 11 points and 14 rebounds, split evenly between offense and defense. Bonander also had three assists, two steals and four blocked shots.

Stenerson also scored in double digits with 10 points to go along with four assists.

Maddy Hanks had eight boards, five on offense and three on defense.

Karlie McKenzie led the team with three steals.

Lyman 49, Lady Panthers 36

Lyman came into Saturday’s contest ranked No. 2 in Class 3A and sporting a 15-0 record.

“Again, we dug a hole,” coach McKenzie said.

The Lady Panthers trailed 19-5 after the first quarter. Powell outscored the Lady Eagles 31-30 the next three quarters but couldn’t overcome that first-quarter deficit.

“Turnovers — we did not handle the pressure well,” coach McKenzie said of the game. “Things that we’ve been successful with all year up to this point we just didn’t execute well and dug a hole. But [I] thought we battled the whole game.”

Bonander led with 11 points and Hanks had seven. As a team, the Lady Panthers shot 36 percent from both outside and inside the arc and 46 percent at the line. For the season, Powell is averaging 22 percent from the 3-point line, 58 percent at the charity stripe and 41 percent inside the arc.

Besides having a second straight game with 23 turnovers, Powell also had its lowest rebounding game of the season.

The Lady Panthers only had six offensive boards and 18 defensive rebounds.

For the season, Powell has averaged 10.75 offensive boards and 21.38 defensive rebounds.

“Lyman was tall and they killed us on the boards on both ends,” coach McKenzie said.

Bonander led with six boards, five on offense and one on defense. Hanks had five defensive rebounds.

Karlie McKenzie had four assists and Hanks and Bonander finished with three assists apiece. Bonander also had four blocked shots and four steals in the game.

“Even though it wasn’t a good weekend as a whole, I was really happy with the bench,” said coach McKenzie of Ashtyn Heny, Jasmyne Lensgrae, Michele Wagner, Brea Terry and Devon Curtis. “[I] thought all played well for us this weekend. That’s a good sign for us as we are headed towards regionals, as those girls are starting to do more things for us defensively and scoring.”

The Lady Panthers have a 11-5 overall record for the season.

“We’re having a great year — just a bump in the road,” coach McKenzie said of the weekend’s game results. “We’re not worried. We’re confident that we’ll be fine going into Lander and Riverton.”

On Friday, Powell will travel to Lander and tip off against the Lady Tigers at 5:30 p.m. On Saturday, PHS will play the Lady Wolverines in Riverton at 2 p.m.

“That’ll be two tough places to play, but if we can win those, that puts us in control of first seed for regionals,” coach McKenzie said. “So that’s our goal this week.”

For the 3A West North Quadrant, the Lady Panthers lead with a 3-0 conference record. Cody, Riverton and Lander all have a 1-2 conference record.