A remarkable first quarter shooting performance by the Panorama girls' basketball team assured the Panthers of a victory over the ACGC girls last night in a game played on the Panther home court. Panorama made twelve of sixteen first quarter shots including a perfect five of five on three point attempts to race to a 30-11 first quarter lead en route to a 68-27 win.

After the Panthers scored on its first possession of the game, ACGC countered with one of two free throws by Chloe Largent to make it 2-1 in favor of the Panthers. But then the deluge. Our neighbors to the east went on a terror, scoring fourteen consecutive points to make in 16-1 at the midway point of the first quarter. After that ACGC managed ten additional first quarter points, but the Panthers added fourteen to their total to give them the insurmountable nineteen point lead just eight minutes into the game. Panorama's Morgan Johnk's fourteen first quarter points were more than the Charger team total in the quarter.

The second stanza was more even, as the Chargers made four of eight field goals and were outscored by just 15-11 in quarter number two. But the scoring dried up for ACGC in the second half, as it netted only six total points after the intermission on two of thirteen shooting plus two free throws.

Largent was the closest to double figures for ACGC with 8 points. She also led the Charger rebounding with 6 boards, had 2 blocked shots, and the ONLY (!) Charger steal on the night. The Chargers shot 28% for the game, hitting on 9 of 33 field goal attempts, including 2 of 7 from beyond the arc. They made 7 of 12 free throws. Turnovers played a big part in the one sided score, with ACGC committing 26 TO resulting in 32 Panther points.

The Charger boys put up a good fight against the quick as a panther Panthers. However, as in the girls game, a single Panther put on a great first quarter shooting display. Sophomore Zach Rizutti was a perfect six for six including two treys to total all of his team's fourteen first quarter points. Down 14-7, the Chargers stayed close, but could never get any kind of a run going. The teams played virtually evenly in the second quarter as the half ended with a 24-16 advantage for the Panthers.

Still anyone's ball game at that point. When the Panthers hit their first three shots after halftime to make it 31-14, it looked at that point like they might pull away. ACGC answered with five different Chargers--Lucas Marsh, Eli Kading, Noah Nelson, Bryce Littler and Noah Sargent--hitting seven of nine shots in the quarter to reduce the deficit to 43-34 going into the final eight minutes of play.

The Chargers went cold in the first three and a half minutes of the fourth quarter while the Panthers padded their led to 50-34. ACGC could get no closer than thirteen points after that and the home team managed to make 8 of 12 free throws down the stretch to preserve the 60-47 victory.

Eli Kading and Quynton Younker each tallied 12 points for the Chargers, with Younker also leading in rebounds with 6. No one had more than two assists or more than one steal. The team made 15 of 36 field goal tries for 42%, including 4 of 13 three point attempts. Free throw shooting was a strong point, as the team made 13 of 17 for 77%.

The losses drop the season records to 8-8 (6-6, WCAC) for the girls and 4-11 (2-10, WCAC) for the boys. Despite the losses, there are winnable games for both teams on the horizon. With tournament play looming in the background, this is the time for the teams to show some grit in preparation for tournament play.

The Chargers will step out of the conference for one game when they will entertain Southwest Valley (Corning) this coming Monday in a girls/boys doubleheader with the girls' game to begin at 6 PM. This is "pink out" night for the basketball teams. Go Chargers!

Girls' score by quarter Boys' score by quarter

ACGC 11 10 4 2--27 ACGC 7 9 18 13--47

Pan 30 15 17 6--68 Pan 14 13 19 17--60

Box score: REB Box score:

FG 3PT FT O-D AST STL TP FG 3PT FT O-D AST STL TP

Fuller 1-2 0-0 3-4 2-1 0 0 5 EKading 3-3 3-4 3-4 2-2 0 0 12

Campbell 0-1 0-0 0-0 1-0 0 0 0 Sargent 1-2 1-2 0-0 0-5 0 1 3

Largent 3-9 0-0 .2-5 3-3 0 1 8 Nelson 2-5 0-2 2-3 0-0 1 0 4

Embleton 1-1 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 2 Marsh 3-7 0-1 0-0 0-3 2 0 6

JHoover 0-5 0-2 2-2 1-2 2 0 2 MKading 0-0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

O'Brien 1-1 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 0 2 Byars 1-1 0-0 0-0 1-2 0 0 2

KyYoung 2-6 1-2 0-0 1-3 0 0 5 Littler 2-9 0-2 4-5 0-1 0 1 8

Lemke 0-1 0-0 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 Younker 3-8 0-2 6-8 1-5 1 1 12

Carrick 0-2 0-1 0-0 0-1 1 0 0

Larsen 0-0 0-0 0-0 1-0 0 0 0

Bunde 0-0 0-0 0-0 1-0 0 0 0

KeYoung 1-5 1-2 0-0 0-1 1 0 0