Beckman Leads Panthers Over Chargers, 67-52

Payton Beckman had what is known as a career night last Friday as she "tickled the twines" for thirty six points in leading Panorama to a 67-52 win over the ACGC Chargers. The total was, in fact, the most by the Panther junior in her two plus year career. So her performance was literally a career night. The Chargers had no answer for Beckman who nailed eight three pointers in the game--four in each half.

The Chargers didn't help themselves offensively, as they committed numerous turnovers against the vaunted Panther press. The Panthers came up with twenty one steals with their pressure defense.

The Chargers led once in the game when Kylie Young made two free throws to give ACGC a 2-0 lead. The Chargers didn't score again for three minutes, and by then home team had put twelve points on the board with Beckman getting half of those. By quarters end Panorama led 20-8.

The Chargers struggled offensively throughout the half, managing only three field goals (two by Alaina Bunde and one by EmmaKay McClain) while Panorama built a 37-13 lead by the intermission. Beckman accounted for twelve of the fifteen Panther points in the second stanza, and finished the half with 22. For the half Panorama attempted thirty three shots, while ACGC managed just fourteen--largely due to turnovers against pressure.

Things picked up for the Chargers in the second half as they outscored the Panthers 39-30 in the final two quarters. The Chargers took advantage of a four minute scoring drought for the Panthers to start the second half, and put ten points on the board to cut the Panther lead to fourteen at 37-23. But that was as close as ACGC would get. By quarter's end, the Chargers were down by a 46-28 score.

The Panther lead increased to twenty five points in the the final quarter until the last minute when Young put up a flurry of points for the visitors. The Charger senior scored nine points in the last minute against Panther reserves to get the Chargers within fifteen points at 67-52.

The Chargers shot 33% overall and made 3 of 15 long balls attempts. Panorama shot 47% overall and connected on 10 of 25 from beyond the arc. The Panthers bested ACGC in the rebound battle, 30-25, and also topped the visitors in assists, 23-8.

No Panther player scored in double figures other than Beckman, although Ella Waddle and Laci Rishel each came up with 8 points, The Chargers, on the other hand, had three players in double figures. Young's late flurry enabled her total to reach 21, while McClain totaled 11 and

Bunde 10. Bunde also grabbed ten rebounds to claim a double double.

"We got down early and and gave up too many transition baskets which made it hard to come back during the rest of the game," Charger coach Brad Baudler commented following the game. "At the beginning we needed to match their intensity.

"In the second half it was a lot better and we won that half. Our girls played really hard and just need to figure out some of the smaller details. I was happy with our effort and we just need to learn how to start quicker and hit shots," Baudler concluded.

Score by quarter:

ACGC 8 5 15 24--52

Pan 20 17 9 21--67

Charger statistics: (TP-REB-ASTS-STLS) TCarlson (5-4-9-3) Dorsey (3-3-3-1) Young (21-3-1-1) McClain (11-10-1-2) Bunde (10-10-1-2) Carney (0-0-0-0) O'Brien (0-4-1-0) Richter (2-1-0-0)

Panther statistics: Beckman (36-5-4-5) Storesund (5-4--1-3) Richel (5-2-10-4) EWaddle (8-1-1-2)

Poldberg (4-2-3-2) MWaddle (6-4-2-0) Boettcher (0-5-1-3) Sellers (0-5-1-2) Lutz (0-1-0-0)