Lady Panthers top the Buffs, fall to Norsemen

by Morgan Bork, student writer

The Gilmanton girls basketball team’s search for its first win of the season came to an end last week as the Lady Panthers secured a thrilling 56-51 victory over Mondovi at home on Monday, Jan. 12.

The Lady Panthers were hungry for a victory and knew coming into the game that the Lady Buffaloes would very aggressive and quick. Both teams came out playing strong, and Gilmanton led 15-13 at the end of the first quarter. Keeping up the intensity, the Lady Panthers went into halftime with a 23-20 lead.

Coming out of halftime, the Panthers knew that they could not give up now.  They kept the intensity higher than the Buffaloes for the rest of the game and made timely shots to hang on for the win.

Senior Lexie Severson led the team with 21 points followed by Julia Branger with 13, Rachel Hovey with nine, Jordyn Bloom with 8, and Morgan Bork with five.

On Thursday, Jan. 15, the Lady Panthers resumed conference play with the Whitehall Norsemen. Gilmanton came out strong, wanting to follow up their first win with their first conference victory.

At the end of the first quarter, the Lady Panthers led 10-8 and kept up their intensity in the second quarter, going into halftime with a 21-19 lead.

However, the second half was a different story for the Lady Panthers, who could not shut down the Norsemen’s drive to the bucket and got out-rebounded, resulting in the close 51-46 loss.

Severson led the team on the scoreboard once again with 20 points followed by Bork with 12, Branger with six, and Hovey and Bloom both with four points each.

The Lady Panthers traveled to Cochrane-Fountain City on Tuesday, Jan. 20, and will host Alma Center Lincoln this Friday, Jan. 23.