Weekend sweep for top ranked Park City teams
The Lady Panthers stretched their win-streak to 12 conference games last weekend, but first faced a tough challenge from the Absarokee Huskies.
As Panther Coach Jason Federico put it, Park City had its worst scoring night ever during his 3-year coaching tenure as a hard-playing Huskies squad gave its in-county foe a run for the money. The final score was 47-37.
“I give the Huskies credit. They (saw) our struggles and they played hard and confident,” said Federico. “I was very thankful to get out of there with a win.”
The Panthers committed 14 turnovers and used a press to force 25 turnovers on the part of the Huskies.
Federico also credited the Huskies with beating his team on boards in both halfs, with Park City’s totals being 15 and 14 compared to Absarsokee’s 14 and 18 boards respectively.
Bench players Shelby Branstetter tallied 12 points and six rebounds while Shelby Kluth had nine points and five rebounds. Morgan Popp also had nine points while MacKinzie Verke added seven.
Saturday night’s battle against the Bridger Scouts ended with a 43-30 Panther victory.
Rebounding was again a key factor. Popp pulled down 15 boards, Cara Grewell had nine and Tehya Ray had seven, for a team-total of 41. The Scouts had just 16 rebounds on the night.
The Scouts were scoreless in the first quarter and trailed 8 to 18 at the half. Bridger rallied to outscore the Panthers in the third quarter 14 to 11, but then fell to single digits in the final quarter, as Park City continued to add to the score. The Lady Panther’s conference record is now 12-0, atop the 6C standings.
BOYS
Mason Moe had a huge scoring weekend as he led the Panthers to two more conference wins.
It was a tight game Friday against the Absarokee Huskies that was decided with a final score of 61-56.
Moe led all scorers with 28 points and was the sole Panther to reach double-digit figures. Grant McNeil and Zach Stutterheim each added seven points.
Absarokee’s Roman Zugaza had 16 points while Rily Livingston added 13.
Saturday’s game against Bridger also went to the Panthers, 83-74.
Moe tallied a whopping 32 points while teammates Jaren McNeil had 18 and Dylan Sitzman had 10.
Bridger had three player hit double figures, led by Austin Riddle with 23 points.
“Our defense and rebounding this weekend was not as good as its been so we will have to pick up on that the next couple weeks but we were finally able to put a decent amount of points on the board,” said Panther Coach Matt Neumann.
The boys now stand 11-1 in conference play, leading 6C standings.
This weekend takes the Panthers to a non-conference game in Red Lodge and a conference game against Broadview-Lavina that will determine the top seed for tournaments.