Panther basketball starts hot

The Richards High School varsity boys basketball team started the season with a 4-1 record.

The Panthers defeated four non-district opponents, each by at least 20 points, and handily lost to one other.

Travis Tennison, athletic director and first-year coach, expected a challenging test in the past weekend’s Apple Springs tournament. “The next coming games will let us know who we are as a team,” he said.

The Panthers held opponents to 30 or fewer points in three wins.

“We hang our hat on the defensive end,” Tennison said. “We press full court and will play half court.”

Captain Noah Bay is the lone senior on the squad of nine, which includes seven upperclassmen. He led the team by averaging 18.3 points and eight rebounds per game.

The 6-foot-3 Bay had his season high of 23 points in a Nov. 30 win over Leggett, when he added a season-best seven assists.

Junior Colton McCarthy averaged 6.5 rebounds and 5.0 points per game. The wing had season highs of 13 points, 10 rebounds and five steals against Leggett.

“He’s the glue of our team,” the coach said. “He does a lot. He plays defense. He rebounds. He scores.”

Junior Jayden Tennison averaged 13.5 points a game. The son of the coach, the 6-foot-4 junior had a season-high 20 points in the opener and reached double figures in three more victories.

The Panthers run a fastpaced offense, similar to last year’s scheme. “We give them a little bit more freedom to make decisions,” the coach said.

He said the plan is “to get some of these guys who were not used to being scorers” involved in the offensive attack.

Junior returnees Liam Wilson and Elijah Bay have had their moments. Wilson, who averaged 9.5 points, had 16 points and 10 rebounds against Leggett, his first double-double of the season. Bay averaged 4.3 points and had a season-high 15 points against Leon.