Panthers take two losses

For the Alberton Panthers boys’ basketball team, their road game with Two Eagle River (TER) this Saturday night was a chance to measure progress.

And although they fell behind early in the game, they kept fighting to the final whistle even as they fell to the Eagles 57-42. 

Friday night the Panthers were in Charlo for a Western 13C conference game and fell to the Viking 57-44. 

The TER girls were scheduled to play the Alberton and Charlo girls, but the games were not online, and no scores were posted. 

In the boys' game, the home-standing Eagles jumped out to a 19-6 lead after one quarter of play.  TER then outscored Alberton 11-9 in the second quarter, giving them a 30-15 lead at the half. 

Two Eagle increased their lead by eight points in the third quarter, making it 47-24 with one quarter remaining. 

Behind the scoring of freshman Cadence Ketron, Alberton put together a fourth quarter rally, outpointing the Eagles 18-10 over the final eight minutes of play but it was not enough to overcome the early deficit as TER picked up their sixth victory of the season against seven losses. 

Alberton fell to 2-10 on the season. 

Ketron led all scorers with 16 points, while teammate Jaxson Zimmerman added 11 and standout forward Shea Fredette contributed seven points to the Panthers effort. 

Friday night in Charlo was nearly identical to the game versus TER for the Panthers.  The score was tied at 12 after the first quarter, but Charlo outscored the visitors 19-10 in the second quarter to take a 31-22 halftime lead. 

Paced by the game high 22 points scored by Karson Cox, who had 54 points in a game last week, Charlo added nine more points to their halftime advantage in the third quarter.  Heading into the final quarter, Charlo was up 46-28. 

But as it was in the game against TER, the Panthers kept battling and chipped five points off the Viking lead in the fourth quarter, but as was also the case in the TER game, the early lead proved to be too much to overcome. 

Fredette led Alberton with 18 points. 

Alberton has three games on their schedule this coming week, beginning with a home game versus Plains this Thursday (Jan 30).  Friday night they travel to Philipsburg, then return home for games vs Troy.