One Last Dance

Caleb Gullahorn, staff

Longtime Lady Panthers Basketball coach, Carla Crowder, coached her last game in the Panther arena Friday, February 22nd against North Little Rock. She has lifted the Panthers, bringing two State Championships to Cabot. As her career comes to an end it is sad to see, but the Panthers had some unfinished business to attend too.

The Lady Panthers first-round matchup against Roger was a difficult game due to the crowd full of Mountaineers fans. The game started very slow with neither team scoring until about two minutes into the game. Rogers jumped out to a 14-4 lead but then the lady Panthers roared back. Brooklyn Stracner put together a great first half with 13 points and leading the comeback. Both teams where neck and neck in the first half as they were tied 19 a piece.

After halftime, the Mountaineers came out and shot the ball lights out, putting the Panthers down fourteen points heading into the fourth quarter. A good performance for Izzy Arnold, both on the offensive and defensive end forcing many turnovers and scoring on the breaks. Brooklyn with a quiet second half and the Lady Panthers unable to get shots to fall made the deficit too much to overcome.

The Lady Panthers season and Coach Crowders career ended in a tough way. In a game where if they could have just had some shots fall would have ended differently, but it didn’t and it’s what’s hard about basketball it’s a game of the moments.

Coach Crowder and the Panthers should not be disappointed about the season, it may not have ended or gone how they would have planned. They will grow as a team with some of the young players playing big minutes in some big conference games. Panther fans will be anticipating who will replace the great Coach Crowder and the players know they have a lot of potential and chances to make runs in the future.