Lady Panthers break even last week

Last week, the Alberton girls had one win and one loss.

The girls started out the week with a game against Seeley-Swan on Friday night, which they lost 32-60, but finished with a win on Saturday against Hot Springs, 51-36.

At Alberton on Friday night, the team honored its four seniors-Kayla Webb, Jenna Rausch, Dani Hanley and Andi Clark-before hitting the floor for the game. Coach Jim Baldwin said that although the girls lost he felt that they played Seeley better this time around compared to earlier in the season.

“We played pretty fair the first half, but we started getting worn out in the second,” Baldwin said.

Seeley had so much depth that the team would put five players out on the court and then pull them off and put five fresh players on the court.

“I’ve said that if all the stars align this is a team we can compete against and it just hasn’t worked out yet,” Baldwin said. “But the kids never stopped fighting.”

Seeley jumped to the lead from the get go, leading 28-14 going into the second half. Rausch had a double-double during the game with 12 points and 13 rebounds. Hanley added nine while Clark scored six.

It was on to Hot Springs Saturday and what Baldwin referred to as the “best all around effort.” Hanley had a hot hand and sank five three-pointers, scoring 20 of her game-high 26 points in the first half for Alberton.

Alberton led 23-10 at halftime. In the third quarter though, Hot Springs had a 19-10 run on the girls.

“We got a little flat in the second half,” Baldwin said, “but we went back to our press and picked it up to end up winning.”

Baldwin said that he was proud of the girls.

“They had that tough loss on senior night the night before, but they stuck together and came out to beat Hot Springs,” Baldwin said.

The team played Arlee on Tuesday and will battle Lincoln on Friday night. If they win against Lincoln, they’ll finish third in their conference.

“We had a lead on them the first time we played them and sort of threw it away,” Baldwin said. “The kids are excited, but we have to focus on Arlee right now and then we’ll get ready for Lincoln.”