Another busy week of sports at Jefferson High School that ended the regular season for basketball and wrestling. The post season started on Tuesday with the Lady Panthers hosting Manhattan and the boys team hosting Whitehall. The top three teams will qualify for the divisional tournaments in Billings March 3-6, currently set to take place at the Metra and Lockwood High School. More on this in next week’s Monitor.
The Panthers started the week with games against Anaconda on Tuesday, with the boys traveling to Anaconda and the girls playing Anaconda at home. The tone was set early in Anaconda, the two teams stayed close in the first quarter as Trent McMaster knocked down eight of the Panthers first quarter 18 points, Anaconda was up by three at the end of one 21-18. Then the lid went on, a thereby Braden Morris, a two by Joe Visser and a free throw by Wade Rykal was all the Panthers could get to go through the hoop. If that wasn’t bad enough, the third saw the Panthers putting in three free throws. Going into the fourth they were down 27-45. Shots started falling in the fourth but not near enough to make any dent in Anaconda’s lead and it ended up 39-66. This just happens sometimes in high school ball, but hopefully not very often for the Panthers. McMaster was the only Panther to hit double figures at 10.
At the same time the Lady Panthers were taking on the 8th ranked Class B girls, Anaconda, at JHS. The teams stayed very close in the first quarter, a basket by Sam Zody gave the Panthers a 8-4 lead with 4:26 left, but the next 6 points went for the Copperheads. Cia Stuber closed out the first with a pair of free throws to put the Panthers up 12-10. Rachel Van Blaricom put on a shooting clinic starting the second quarter with a steal and score, she then knocked down two 3 pointers and four 2 pointers to put the cats up 31-24 at the half. Dakota Edmisten took over in the third with two 3’s and a two all within a short period of time, an assist by Van Blaricom to Edmisten made it 50-32 at the end of three. The Panthers cooled off in the fourth and Anaconda pulled to within 9 with 2:50 remaining, Zody swished a pair of free throws, Edmisten added a bucket and a pair of free throws to give the Panthers a convincing 58-45 win. Van Blaricom led the Panthers with 23, followed by Edmisten with 16 in the win.
