After a week of practice and no games, the Alberton Panthers stepped back out on the court last week with two games. They played Seeley on Tuesday and won, 34-23, and played Hot Springs on Saturday, but lost, 39-37.

Against Seeley, Alberton jumped to an early lead out of the first quarter, 6-4. From there, the second quarter was a bit of a struggle as Seeley outscored them, 7-4, to lead going into halftime by one point, 10-11.

“Seeley plays hard defensively,” Coach Chris Clevenger said.

Alberton shut down the opposing team in the third quarter and went into the fourth with a slight lead, 19-13. But there was still a lot of basketball left to play. However, they outscored Seeley in the fourth 15-10 and took the win, 32-23.

Even though they came away with a win, Clevenger said that the team didn’t play as well as they could have.

“We had some problems scoring the ball and didn’t shoot the ball well,” Clevenger said. “We also had some bad turnovers, but it was a win on the road so we’ll take it.”

Clevenger noted that the team did a nice job of hanging in there. They only had eight players on the bench with a couple out due to injuries including Jordan Iverson, who is a good shooter for the team. He had some good words about two of the younger players who have been coming off the bench to fill in.

“Andrew Lommen, who is a freshman, and Jack Lehl, who is an eighth grader, played a majority of the game and they did a great job,” Clevenger said. “They’ve done that all year. They’ve come in off the bench for us and at their age, you don’t expect too much, but they’ve exceeded our expectations. And not only are they holding their own, but they’re doing some good things.”

Against Hot Springs, which they lost, Clevenger said that a lot of the same things that showed up against Seeley came into play.

“We shot very poorly,” he said. “Brandon Lehl had one three-point shot and he typically shoots better. Again, Jordan was injured and wasn’t able to play. Jake Thompson had 20 points and he’s been our leading scorer. He’s been pretty consistent, but we just need somebody else to help him out a bit.”

It was a tight game against Hot Springs and a few more shots could have helped them out. The boys were down 13-21 at halftime after being outscored 9-4 in the first and 12-9 in the second.

Knowing they had to make up some ground, the boys started to put the pressure on in the third and with 3:38 left to play, they were only down by one point, 24-25. Thompson tied it up with a free throw and put them ahead by one point, 26-25. But in the last 30 seconds of the quarter, Hot Springs scored two to make it 26-27 going into the fourth.

During the last couple minutes of the game in the fourth quarter, the boys had some trouble with turnovers. Clevenger said that he expected the team to play a bit better than they did coming back from break.

“In the games leading up to break, I felt like we were improving and doing a good job and I felt like we took a step back this week instead of a step forward,” Clevenger said.

Before Christmas break, the boys lost to Victor 38-55, but came away with a huge win against Phillipsburg, 61-28. Against Phillipsburg, Brandon Lehl filled Thompson’s role, who was out with an injury. Lehl scored eight points.

This week, Clevenger said that he’s looking for the team to take a step forward again. They played Superior on Tuesday and will play against Lincoln on Friday at home, a top team in their conference.

“We can’t turn the ball over. The big battle for our guys is that when they are in their correct spots and doing what they’re supposed they’re doing good, but once they get out of position and make a few mental mistakes, they don’t well,” Clevenger said.