April 23

PANTHERS 25 EDH ALL NET GOLD 32
PANTHERS 28 EAGLES 18
PANTHERS 40 EDH ALL NET BLUE 14

With it being Spring Break for the school systems, many of our girls were out of town for mini-vacations. Also, the fact that Easter was the following day didn’t help much either. We have 5 of our Panther girls and 2 soon to be Panthers join us for this last minute tournament.

First and foremost, I want to acknowledge that all the girls that played this weekend had just attended a five day basketball camp with about five hours of intensive training each day. The first game against EDH All Net
Gold was a battle. We were down early in the first quarter but battled our way back by the start of the second. We ran our full court press the entire game, in which we forced many turnovers, but the lack of subs made if difficult to give the girl’s long periods of rest. Ultimately, our fatigue slowed us down and allowed EDH to pull away and close the game off.

After an hour break we played the Eagles in which we didn’t press at all the entire game. We had to rely on our solid half court defense so that we could rest as much as possible to be ready for our third and final game. Our defense held the Eagles on the perimeter and very rarely were they able to score.

The final game against EDH All Net Blue was a sight to see. The girls poured it on from the very beginning and also sought revenge for the loss against their gold team. We ran a stellar 2-3 Zone defense in which our Posts were able to cover short corner and allow our Guards to focus on keeping the perimeter closely defended. In the fourth quarter we began to slow down a little from the fatigue, but we were able to hold EDH off and attain our second victory of the day.

Great effort Lady Panthers! The hardwork is beginning to pay off!

Best 3 Pointer: Jada
Breakout Game: Kymaya

Impact Players: Skyler & Mika
Offensive Players of the Game: Lauren, Kymaya, Tyra, Maddie
Defensive Players of the Game: the entire Panther team!!

April 16-17

PANTHERS 25 CRR 42
PANTHERS 13 TEAM HO.OP. MANA 29
PANTHERS 10 DAVIS WILDCATS 42

This was an interesting weekend for the Panther’s 7^th grade team. The key point in this is that we played in the 7^th grade girls bracket, but we only had three 7^th graders in town at the time so five 5^th graders and two 8^th graders from the Panther’s program came to help us out. In all three games I believe we were capable of competing, but we were outmatched in size, especially in the last two games. We got off to a slow start with CRR and attempted to battle our way back, but they had two aggressive scorers and their lead compounded. Team HO.OP. Mana was a solid team that just outmatched our execution in the long run. Similar to the previous game, the Wildcats had many girls taller than myself, so it was difficult for the girls to fend off their dribble penetration.

The size difference was something we couldn’t overcome when in came to our 5^th graders. Despite their skill set and ability to compete, the Davis girls were just too tall for us to battle against. Tearyn had a standout performance as she had several rebounds, putbacks, and even played point-guard (however briefly) and brought the ball up the court. Thank you to Stephanie who ran with us this weekend as a veteran point-guard and did what she could to make an impact.

I’m impressed with the determination of the entire team and the 5^th graders especially. Despite the size difference, the girls seemed to battle as if there was no disadvantage. It was a great learning experience for all the girls involved and hopefully our other 7^th graders will be around for the next tournament.

Best Hustle: Tearyn
Best Attitude: the entire Panther team!!
Best Overall Effort: the entire Panther team!!

April 9-10

PANTHERS 25 YOUNG NATIVE BALLERS 13
PANTHERS 12 CAL LADY RED RAIDERS 5^TH 17
PANTHERS 37 CAL LADY RED RAIDERS 4^TH 30

**Congratulations on your FIRST PLACE FINISH in this weekend’s tournament ladies!!**

We started off the tournament playing against the Young Native Ballerz who had gone undefeated against the other two teams in our bracket earlier that morning. For a 4^th grade team they sure were aggressive and willing to fire up the basketball! Our ability to out-execute the other team offensively enabled us to overcome their press and gain our first victory of the tournament.

Playing against the 5^th grade CRR team we got off to a dreadful start. We were impatient with the basketball and often tried to force a pass to the first cutter. The girls are beginning to understand the options within the offense, but now we have to learn to be patient and wait for the second or third cutter. Lauren had 14 rebounds in this game and we had 38 total as a team, but we were just unable get the ball in the basket. We ultimately lost this came because our shots weren’t falling and we didn’t take care of the basketball.

The girls came out ready to play in this last game and scored the same amount of points as they did in the previous two games combined. We shared the basketball very well this game with seven different players scoring. Our defensive was also executed almost the entire game until the very end were the CRR girls made a little run. Despite this, we were able to hold them off and pull of the second victory of the weekend. 

Tournament MVP: Lauren
Offensive Players of the Game: Tyra & Jada
Defensive Players of the Game: Maddie, Natalie, & Sydney

Defensive Captain: Emi (the only one who talked on defense the entire game!)