PANORA — The Panther girls reached the state tournament last season, but then had to say goodbye to a talented group of seniors.
A plethora of talent remained in coach Dan Druivenga’s locker room, but how well a series of new faces would adjust to new roles remained to be seen. Eight games into the season, it has been.
Panorama (8-0), ranked sixth in Class 2A, had kept on keeping on, with prolific senior point guard Bailey Beckman, her freshman sister Payton and senior post Morgan Johnk leading the charge.
Bailey Beckman in third in 2A with a points per game average of 22.4 on 179 points. She has contributed 36 steals and 22 assists and pulled down 42 rebounds.
Younger sister Payton has added 79 points and 20 steals and has splashed 10 3-pointers, six shy of the total big sis Bailey has drained.
Johnk’s 76 points are third best on the team. She has corralled 57 rebounds, handed out 20 assists and come away with 16 thefts.
The team has made 105 steals and is guilty of only 82 turnovers. They are outscoring their foes by an average score of 57-31 and are shooting 45-of-120 (37.5 percent) on 3-point attempts.
If there is one are of concern it is at the free throw line. While continuing last year’s pace of attempting an average of 16 foul shots per game, the current Panthers have hit just 79-of-130 (60.8) well off their 2017-18 accuracy rate of 72.3 percent.
Panorama resumes play Jan. 4 when they host West Central Valley. A Jan. 8 visit to Woodward-Granger follows, with the team visiting Des Moines Christian Jan. 11.
