The ninth grade Panthers took on Whitewater for the second time this season and defeated the Wildcats 47-32. Freshman Brandon Allison led the the Panther offense with 16 points.

“What I told them yesterday was that everybody was going to be a little rusty but you can still play defense and play hard,” head coach Taylor Sweeney said. “You don’t have to be in basketball form to hustle and that’s what they’ve been doing. They’ve been playing pretty hard and I’m proud of them.”

The Mill started the game by shooting free throws due to a technical foul because a Whitewater player showed up in a practice jersey. This lead just continued to increase with Starr’s Mill scoring 20 points in the first quarter and the Wildcats only managing to score five points.

The Panther momentum never seemed to stop. Whitewater turned to fouls to shrink the lead. When the fouls started to add up, the Mill profited off of the bonus free throws.

Going into halftime, the Wildcats loosened up on aggression and put their focus less on defense and more on offense. Whitewater ended the second quarter managing to get multiple shots off but were unable to connect. At the end of the first half, the score was 32-9 in favor of the Panthers.

“When we have bad games and we lose, there’s usually one let-down quarter where they outscore us 20-5 and we didn’t have one of those today,” Sweeney said. “I told the boys at halftime we play great quarters and we need to put four together, and we did that today.”

After halftime, the Wildcats came out able to sink shots, but the Mill’s lead did not suffer, as they continued to score. In the third quarter, Starr’s Mill shot more free throws and managed to make difficult shots from under the basket. The Panthers maintained a comfortable 44-23 lead going into the final quarter.

The fourth quarter took the same pace as the first quarter as the Panthers advanced their lead and Whitewater struggled to keep up with their stride. In the final minutes of the game, both teams put in every ounce of their effort with a lot of turnovers and full court breaks. Although Whitewater decreased the Panther lead, it was not enough.  Starr’s Mill ended that afternoon with a win 47-32.

“My biggest thing is that I hope that they still all enjoy basketball and they love it and go to summer camp with us getting better and improving,” Sweeney said.

The Panthers will play again at 6 p.m. on Jan. 26 against Fayette County at home.