The #9 ranked Whitharral Panthers basketball team went on the road to face Wellman-Union this past Tuesday night, pummeling them 72-40 to secure the 1A District 5 Championship.
Whitharral had an ultraefficient offensive night, shooting 54% from the field, and they complimented that by tallying 15 steals defensively.
Standouts for the Panthers included Damian Rodriguez with 24 points on 10/12 shooting and two three-pointers made, adding seven rebounds, four steals and three assists, Brent Robinson with 15 points on 7/15 shooting, adding four rebounds, three assists and one steal, and Nate Sansom with 12 points on 4/5 shooting and 3/3 free throw made, adding two assists, two steals and one rebound.
Other Panthers’ stat lines included Ayden Dockery with seven points, three rebounds and a steal, Greg Johnson with four points, three assists, three steals and two rebounds, Christian Reina with four points, a rebound and a steal, Cooper Burns with two points, three rebounds and three steals, Hudson Dobrovolny with two points and three rebounds, and Daniel Rodriguez with two points.
The win improves the Panthers to 21-9 overall this season and 10-0 in district play, wrapping up their district schedule undefeated in route to the district title.
“District champs! It feels good but we are not done yet,” Panthers Head Basketball Coach Brett Berger said. “We need to keep doing our job. There’s many Gold Balls in our future this year. We need to take it one game at a time.”
The Panthers only have one regular season game remaining against the Stratford Elks, which they’ll play over the weekend. Coach Berger referred to the matchup as a “playoff preview” because the goal of the game is to sharpen them up for the postseason.
They kick off postseason play on Monday night at 6:30 p.m. at Brownfield High School versus the Klondike Cougars in the Bi-District/first-round of the playoffs.