Prairie City/Burnt River’s Cole Teel takes the ball to the hoop during his team’s High Desert League matchup with top-ranked Crane on Saturday, Jan. 21, 2023, in Prairie City.

PRAIRIE CITY — The Panthers may remember this as a missed opportunity.

The Prairie City/Burnt River boys basketball team welcomed the top-ranked Crane Mustangs to town on Saturday, Jan. 21, and lost a 73-54 game that was at times closer than the final score indicated.

The Mustangs took an early 3-2 lead before going on a small 7-2 run to extend the margin to 10-4 midway through the first quarter. Opportunistic three-point shooting saw the Mustangs increase their lead to 25-17 after one quarter of play.

The Panthers would respond, however, scoring five straight to open the second quarter to cut the Mustang lead to three at 25-22. The Mustangs would add a field goal to go up by five before outscoring the Panthers 10-8 throughout the rest of the second quarter to take a slim 37-30 lead into halftime.

Like the girls, the boys would come out of the halftime intermission inspired, systematically clawing their way back into the game late in the third quarter. The Panthers would call a timeout down by one at 45-44 with just under a minute and a half left in the third quarter.

Then it all fell apart. The Mustangs came out after the timeout and scored five straight to extend their lead to six at 50-44 headed into the fourth quarter.

The Mustangs were relentless in the fourth, turning their 5-0 run to end the third quarter into a 14-0 run that wasn’t halted until midway through the final frame. By that time, Crane had extended their lead to 59-44.

Prairie City/Burnt River would add another 10 points to their total in the final half of the fourth quarter, but it just wasn’t enough. The Mustangs scored 14 points of their own in the final half of the fourth to end all hope of a Panther comeback and leave Prairie City with a 73-54 league loss that was a battle until the decisive fourth quarter.

Pacing the Panthers on offense was Doyal Lawrence, who had a spectacular 18-point game. Eli Wright also made his presence known, finishing with 13 points in the contest.Wes Voigt had 11 points and Cliff Bice contributed 10 for the Panthers.

The loss leaves the Panthers at 11-7, with a 1-1 league mark.

The Panthers will look to get back into the win column on Thursday, Jan. 26, when they host cross-county foes Dayville/Monument in a High Desert League matchup. Tipoff for that game is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.