The first time the Alberton Lady Panthers faced off against the Victor Pirates they lost 45-34.

Lady Panther Head Coach Jim Baldwin attributed the loss to his squad having to overcome a 25-point deficit going into the fourth quarter and knew they were going to face the challenge of a second meeting with the Pirates head on at home on Saturday.

“The girls felt they could play much better the second time and had something to prove going into the home clash,” Coach Baldwin said.

Playing with something to prove the Lady Panthers jumped out to a 16-5 lead in the first quarter, with Ryan Vicek grabbing six points. Lady Panthers Delani Hanley and Natasha Ball had six and four points respectively.

In the second quarter the Pirates wrangled the momentum away from the home team and brought the game to 18-16 with the Panthers on top.

The fight for momentum picked up in the third quarter, with both teams trading baskets ending the quarter with the Panthers on top 27-26.

Coach Baldwin called the final quarter a “see saw event,” but when the final buzzer rang the Lady Panthers were on top 41-39.

Hanley led the Panthers in scoring with 18-points followed by Vicek who finished with 16.

Ball finished with four-points and Taylor Erdman had three.

“I felt the big difference in the game was we played good defense, holding their center Desiree Charlton to 2 points, and the last time we played she scored 20,” Coach Baldwin said. “It was a total team effort and all six girls I played came up big defensively. Hailie Bahm and Kaitlyn Galahan played big defensively along with the other four girls and it was by far our biggest conference win in two years.”

This week the Lady Panthers hit the road to face Valley Christian on Thursday before returning home Saturday to take on Darby.

“We will honor our two seniors, Natasha Ball and Megan Drury,” Coach Baldwin said.

“We are playing much better as the season progresses, and hopefully the fans will turn out to watch and honor our two seniors.”