Panthers Open Season with Win

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6Jordan Cryts led a balanced attack with 10 points as the Pahranagat Valley Panthers routed the Indian Springs Thunderbirds 43-8 in a non-league game last Saturday. It was the season opener for the Panthers.

Pahranagat Valley led 14-1 after one quarter and limited Indian Springs (0-3) to just two made field goals in the game, one in the second quarter and one in the third.

Coach Mike Strong, in his second season, said, ?For being the first game I thought we did real well. We moved the ball and shared the ball pretty well for this early in the season. We also rebounded well and our defense wasn?t too bad.? The thing he was not quite pleased with was the number of shots the boys missed, however no stats were available.

This week, Thursday through Saturday, the Panther boys (1-0) are at the Comstock Classic in Virginia City where they are slated to play Eureka, Smith Valley, McDermitt and Battle Mountain, but not host Virginia City.

?We were there last year,? Strong said, ?and went 0-4, so we?re hoping to play better obviously, with the kids a little more experienced now. We?ll see a lot of full court man defense up there, and we hope we?ll do better at handling the pressure.?

On Dec. 17, the team hosts Lincoln County in a non-league game. The Lynx have won the last three meetings.

In other news, according to sources around southern Nevada and Division IV league president James Molloy, athletic director at Indian Springs, Quest Academy has had all its league games cancelled. Therefore, the league will drop back to 11 teams. Pahranagat Valley had been scheduled to play Quest Jan. 31, but Strong said that date will now just be a bye on the schedule.

Molloy said Quest is seeking to build a team much like Findlay Prep, ?basically an All-Star team.? Although he did say he was not 100 percent sure what the NIAA was going to do. He did not think their entire season would be cancelled, just that they would not be playing Division IV league games.