The Siloam Springs girls basketball team has faced some pretty stiff competition in 11 games to start the 2016-17 season, and that doesn't figure to get any easier for the Lady Panthers this week in the seventh annual Siloam Springs Holiday Classic.
The tournament begins with opening round games Wednesday -- starting at 10 a.m. -- at the Panther Activity Center on the campus of Siloam Springs High School.
The Lady Panthers play at 7 p.m. against Coweta, Okla., in a rematch of last year's opening round game which Siloam Springs won 33-29. Other teams in the tournament include Arkansas schools Rogers, Springdale, Prairie Grove, Gentry and Oklahoma schools Claremore and defending tournament champion Holland Hall out of Tulsa.
"I don't think there's any poor teams in the tournament," said Siloam Springs head coach Tim Rippy.
Seven of the eight teams in last year's tournament are back this year with the only exception being Inola, Okla.
The Lady Panthers have already suffered a loss to Holland Hall 62-52 on Dec. 8 in the Jerry Oquin Invitational in Inola, Okla. Siloam Springs also lost to Rogers 55-32 on Dec. 13.
Siloam Springs also has played Prairie Grove, Springdale and Claremore in past years of the tournament.
"Both sides of bracket have some good teams," Rippy said. "Springdale is probably favorite to get to the finals but they've got to do it.
"Holland Hall is very good. I think Rogers is capable. I've heard Claremore is a really solid team."
Siloam Springs defeated Prairie Grove in the 2014-15 Holiday Classic championship, but the Lady Panthers slipped to fourth in 2015-16, after beating Coweta in the opening round and losing back-to-back games to Rogers and Springdale. Holland Hall beat Rogers 42-27 in the finals last year.
Facing Coweta in the opening round again, Rippy said the Lady Panthers will be challenged.
"Coweta has most of their players returning from last year," he said. "They've got a big, strong post and a good left-handed point guard. They'll play a zone (defense) that will give us trouble. Hopefully we can show some growth between now and then and play well at home."
Siloam Springs (2-9) is coming off a break for Christmas, but before the break the Lady Panthers got some valuable practice time in.
"A big deal for us is to cut down on turnovers," Rippy said. "We've got to cut down on turnovers and get quality shots."
Rippy said the Lady Panthers have been averaging more than 20 turnovers a game and they would love to get that number down in the 14 to 15 range.
"Getting another six to seven possessions a game would tremendously help us," he said.
Rippy said the Lady Panthers are slowly getting better defensively.
"Right now we're trying to hang our hat on the defensive end and play hard for four quarters," he said. "We saw signs of that Friday (Dec. 16 against Tahlequah Sequoyah) and against Rogers. We still had some breakdowns definitely but overall defensively we've shown improvement and on defensive glass we've shown improvement."
Junior Morgan Vaughn leads the Lady Panthers in scoring at 15.4 points per game, while sophomore Chloe Price is second at 9.1 points.
The Lady Panthers have struggled record-wise but have been in nearly every ballgame they've played.
"There's certainly two to three games where had we performed at higher level they were gettable," Rippy said. "We didn't make the plays down the stretch. Sometimes a team has to go through that struggle on the court."
When the Lady Panthers play today, it will have been nearly two weeks since they last played a game.
"Our kids need a break," Rippy said. "I think with a long season still to go, it'll be good to come back and get a fresh start."
Sports on 12/28/2016