By John Earp
The Lady Panthers Varsity Basketball Team (4-16; 1-2 in district) faced the Tatum Lady Coyotes (8-7; 2-1 in district) Tuesday night in the Panther Gym. The game started out at a very slow pace, with neither team scoring much in the first few minutes. The Lady Coyotes began putting more points on the board in the second half of the first period, pulling ahead 16-10 by the end of the first. The Lady Panthers showed some promise in the second period, but still continued to fall further behind the Lady Coyotes. Halfway through the second period, the Lady Coyotes led 27-16. The Lady Panthers then turned on both their defensive and their offensive game, narrowing Tatum’s lead to just four points, 29-25, with less than a minute remaining in the second period. The Lady Panthers had a lot of difficulty scoring in the third period, however, and with about 3 minutes left in that period, had only put four points on the board. However, the Lady Coyotes had only put eight on the board at that point, so the game remained competitive though somewhat lackluster. At the end of the third, Tatum had extended their lead to 10 points, 41-31. The Lady Panthers continued to struggle to keep up with the Lady Coyotes, and with three minutes remaining in the game, Tatum led 49-39. The Tatum girls continued to lead the way, holding Jal to only 3 points in the fourth period. Final score was 60-42. Leilani Sauceda was the high scorer For Jal, with 17 points. Natalee Nunez scored 10, Halee Edwards 5, and both Julissa Hernandez and Zayda Fuentes scored 4.
