Panther wits leads to Panther wins

By Janice Kurbjun
Times staff writer

In boys basketball, the Panthers outsmarted the Chiefs in Saturday’s game and hope to sneak in a few more wins on their home court this weekend against Little Snake River Valley School on Friday and against the Southeast Cyclones on Saturday.

In its first weekend home after a long stretch of traveling, Saratoga High School nailed a win against Wyoming Indian by simply keeping the energy up. Neck and neck until the second half of the game, the Panthers took off by eight points in the third quarter to finish 11 points ahead at the end of fourth, 83-72.

“I thought we had a little more energy due to the crowd than they did at the end of the game,” Saratoga coach Rex Hohnholt said. “We just looked a little fresher than they did out there.”
He speculated that the elevation may have had something to do with Wyoming Indian’s ability to keep up. While the Chiefs train at 4,000 feet above sea level, the Panthers are accustomed to the lack of oxygen 3,000 feet higher.

Hohnholt said the boys had no special tactics against the Chiefs. They played their game and surprised Wyoming Indian, showing them Saratoga could push the ball and put on the pressure too, he said.

With double-digit scoring from Hayden Hohnholt, Josh Rice, Jake Johnston and David Capozzoli, and scoring contributions from Jonathan Jones, Gus Redmond, Ryan Larscheid and Sam Streeter, the coach said there is always someone new who steps up to help the team.
“Every week they surprise me with what they can do and do well,” Hohnholt said.

This weekend is one of the biggest weekends Saratoga plays all year, according to the coach.
On Friday night, the Panthers tip off against the Rattlers at 7 p.m. to fight the ongoing battle between the two Carbon County schools.

“(Little Snake River Valley) has a very good ball team and we are not overlooking them,” Hohnholt said. “We talked this week that our biggest game this week is Snake River. They could beat anyone in the state on any given night and we know that and we know we have to have our best game out on the basketball court if we want to beat them.”

The Southeast game is the second of two conference games all season and is important for seeding in the regional tournament. The game starts at 4 p.m.

“We were fortunate to beat them on their turf by six points,” the Panther coach said. “They do everything right and play within their abilities.”

If his boys can control the tempo of the game and step up their defense, Hohnholt thinks Saratoga can secure a victory. “We feed off a steal here or a good defensive stand there,” he said. “We get easy baskets by playing hard and scrappy and we didn’t do that in (the last) game.”

The team is excited about the home court advantage against both teams and plans to start and
finish the weekend with intensity supported by the crowd.