Alberton girls end on high note

The Alberton girls had a strong finish to their regular season last week with two wins. They bested Arlee by one point, 39-38, and Lincoln, 52-37.

Up first was a game against Arlee last Tuesday. Coach Jim Baldwin said that the girls started out playing well.

“We had them down by like 11 points,” he said.

But things were about to get challenging. Baldwin said that they started to make some foolish mistakes and shot very poorly from the foul line, making eight of 26 free throws. Baldwin said that as things looked rough the girls were able to pull out with a win.

“It was a close game, but it was one of those games where we were upset afterwards,” Baldwin said. “We were upset with the way we played. But like I told the girls it’s better to be upset and have won than to have lost and been upset.”

Baldwin said that it was actually a good game for the girls to experience as they head into districts this weekend.

“We’re going into a tournament where anything can happen,” Baldwin said. “That’s the first game we’ve won by one point this season.”

The Lady Panthers kept up their winning ways with a game against Lincoln on Saturday. Baldwin said that girls went out looking for “a little revenge.”

“We felt that we just gave the game away to Lincoln when we played them last time,” Baldwin said. “We hadn’t played well and we felt we had something to prove.”

The girls came out of the first quarter ahead by two, 14-12. The girls had two huge runs on the Lynx during the second and third quarters, 12-5 and 13-3.

“It was another one of the best all around efforts,” Baldwin said. “We’d been struggling to get the ball to the inside to Jenna Rausch, but she scored 17 points for us.

Dani Hanley had 15 points for the Lady Panthers and Andi Clark also chipped in 13. The Panthers finished the regular season 4-6, 9-9.

The Panthers will go into the district tournament in third place. They will battle against Granite, a team they’ve beaten both times.

“But like everybody else, we have to ready for anything,” Baldwin said. “It’s going to be a new season, but we feel comfortable with our opponent.”

Baldwin said that they aren’t looking past the matchup with Granite. He said that they are going to focus on Granite and when they are finished with that game, they’ll be getting ready for the next game.