Panthers win against Redskins!

Last Friday night, the Panthers took on the Loudon Redskins at home. To get a large student section, Mr. Boling announced that all students will be admitted to the game free of charge.  The girl’s varsity game started at 6:00 as usual.  The girls lost to Loudon by three points the last game they played.  They came out ready to challenge our rivals.  Taylor Goodman, a freshman, did an outstanding job of rebounding offensively and defensively.  This gave her team extra chances at shots and kept the Redskins from putting up more points.  Ashlyn Zeller had several steals and scored off of them.  Fouls were not a problem like in the past few games.

At the half, the Panthers were leading the Redskins.  The girls came out ready to carry this game until the end.  We had a good lead on the Redskins until the last couple minutes.  The score kept getting closer and closer until the Redskins were breathing on our necks.  The Panthers were up by three points, and the Redskins wanted to win, so they kept shooting three-point shots, hoping to tie up the game.  They missed and they eventually called a time-out.  Their coach wanted them to go in for a close shot.  LC fouled a Loudon girl, and she went to the free throw line.  She made them both, and they were down by one.  Their coach called another timeout, and gave them a play to steal the ball.  They were successful, but we were able to knock it out of bounds.  They tried running a play with seven seconds left.  They threw it in, and a bad pass caused the ball to roll out of bounds, resulting in an exciting win for the Lenoir City Panthers.

After a celebration of the student section, the singers and the concert choir sang the National Anthem at the beginning of the boy’s game.  As usual, they sounded phenomenal.

The boy’s game was another nail biter.  The game was neck and neck for most of the game.  Tyler Ferguson, who gave LC’s team trouble last game, had a terrible game–which was in our favor.  We had several blocks, getting the student section even more pumped up.  The Loudon student section could not even compare to how loud and excited ours was.  Clay Campbell hit a buzzer beater at the end of the half.  This quick shot set the Panthers ahead by five going into the half.  Dylan Brewster had an amazing game.  He had a ton of points and was shooting three point shots from around a foot and a half behind the three point line.

Brandon Hunt, Trey Courtney, and Rashawn Tallent also played a vital part in the game.  Brandon Hunt was one of the best rebounders of the game.  At the half, the cheerleaders did their routine that they did during the pep rally.  After the half, the Panthers were still ready to play.  The student section cheered them on, lifting the spirits.  Several chants were yelled, and the boys played harder.  The Panthers continued to pull away from the Redskins.  The Redskins tried keeping up, but they were no match to us.  The student section yelled, “Start your tractors!”  After the game, the student section stormed the court.  The game had one of the best morale the players had ever seen.