It was basketball at its finest for the Panthers on Saturday night. With the start of the Sectional Tournament, they needed a win to continue.
The Raiders came to town trying to avenge the loss to the Panthers at their last meeting. The Panthers were trying to get back to normal after taking a shellacking in their last two games. It was a different Panther team on the court this night. The boys glued on their game face this time so it wouldn’t fall off and got down to business playing basketball, as did Roane County. It was a game that a fan would expect it to be between these two great teams. There was not a lot of mistakes on either side, just good, hard playing action. The Panthers were firing shots at the board, setting the net on fire and playing some good defense. The Raiders were also gnawing at the bone, grabbing some points of their own and hanging tight with the Panthers in the first half.
At the end of the half, neither team could grab the king of the board title from the other with the score at Panthers 28, Raiders 27. However, it was like the Panthers got a pep talk from the Globetrotters in the locker room during half time. The turbo was kicked in, and the Panthers were off and running. It was their defense that was the contributing factor to the Raider demise. The offense scored 18 points in the third, but the defense held the high scoring Raiders to just seven points. The Raiders tried to make a comeback in the 4th but were too little, too late. It was the Panthers over the Raiders by the score of 61-48; a great game between two good teams. The Panthers will move onto the next game in the line up on Tuesday night against the Eagles of Braxton County. It will be a whale of a game if the Panthers can continue their level of intensity and making points.
Go Panthers!