Panthers roughed up by visiting Plains
Home sweet home was not so sweet for the Alberton Panthers and Lady Panthers this past week, as a pair of 7B teams rolled into town and left the home teams reeling.
This past Thursday, Alberton, a member of the Western 13C conference, hosted Plains in a pair of non-conference games, with the Horsemen recording a 70-46 win and the Trotters downing the Lady Panthers 70-27.
Saturday night, the Panthers boys fell to visiting Troy, 58-26. The girls' game was cancelled.
In the boys' game against Plains, both teams played tight defense in the first quarter, which ended with the Horsemen holding an 11-10 lead.
Plains opened things up a bit in the second quarter, buoyed by the return of standout senior guard Darren Standeford, who missed several games in the past two weeks due to injury. At the half, Plains held a 26-20 lead.
Both teams scored 17 points in the third quarter, preserving the six-point Plains halftime edge, 43-37, heading into the fourth quarter.
Plains then erupted for 27 fourth quarter points while holding Alberton to nine as they rolled to the 24-point victory.
Alberton got a game-high 20 points from standout junior forward Shea Fredette, who got help from teammates Cadence Ketron and Jaxon Zimmerman, both of whom chipped in 10 points for the Panthers.
Plains senior forward Zayden Allen led a quintet of Horsemen who scored in double figures as he tallied 16 points in the win. Coby Anderson contributed 12 points to the Plains cause, while Wyatt Butcher and Lucian Ferranti scored 11 points apiece. Standeford chipped in 10 for the victors.
The Horsemen improved to 5-7 overall with the win.
The girls' game between the Lady Panthers and Trotters was never in question as the visiting Trotters rolled to a 25-5 lead at the end of the first eight minutes of play, then upped their advantage to 40-11 at the half.
Plains went on to outscore Alberton 30-16, invoking the Mercy rule in the second half to cruise to their seventh victory of the year. Alberton fell to 0-9 with the loss.
Katelyn Subatch led Plains with a game high 16 points, while teammate Taryn Meredith added 12 for the Trotters, who played the game without standout sophomore forward Ava Lawyer, sidelined due to injury.
In the Alberton boys' game with Troy Saturday night, the Trojans’ defense held the Panthers to four first quarter points while scoring 17 of their own behind a balanced scoring attack and solid rebounding on both ends of the court.
The visitors stretched their lead to 41-15 at the halftime intermission, then outscored Alberton 17-6 in the third quarter, giving them a commanding 58-21 lead with one quarter to play.
Alberton held Plains scoreless over the final eight minutes of the game, but were also held to six points offensively as they could not catch Plains.
Fredette paced Alberton with nine points. No totals for Troy scoring were made available. The loss dropped Alberton to 2-13 on the year.
Next on the schedule for Alberton is a road trip this Friday to Seeley for a pair of games versus the Blackhawks, then a road game the following night (Feb 8) to Drummond.