Basketball Recap: West Takes a Loss

West lost against Highland back in January, and unfortunately they wound up with the same result on Friday. The West Panthers lost to the Highland Rams at home by a 62-45 margin. While losing is never fun, the Panthers can't take it too hard given the team's big disadvantage in MaxPreps' Utah basketball rankings (they are ranked 79th, while the Rams are ranked eighth).

Elijah Albertson

Steals

02/14/25 vs Highland	2
02/07/25 vs Skyline	3
02/04/25 @ East	3

When it comes to explaining why West lost, don't look at Elijah Albertson. Despite the final result, he went 5-for-10 to rack up 15 points. Albertson has been hot recently, having also posted two or more steals the last three times he's played. Another player making a difference was DC Auksitino, who posted 13 points.

Multiple players turned in solid performances to lead Highland to victory, but perhaps none more so than Soren Ries, who almost dropped a double-double with 16 points and nine rebounds. Jack Anderton was another key player, going 5-for-11 en route to 14 points.

West has traveled a rocky road recently having lost 11 of their last 13 matches, which has put a noticeable dent in their 7-16 record this season. As for Highland, the victory was the fourth in a row for them, bringing their record for this year to 20-3.

Coming up, West will head out to challenge Skyline at 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday. Highland does not have any more games scheduled as of now.