The last time the Rugby Panther girls faced the Rolla Bulldogs was in a one-sided, 80-16 affair in the Panthers’ favor in the CNDC Tournament in Rugby.

At a second game in Rugby Tuesday evening. the end result was also a one-sided affair in the Panthers’ favor, but not as severe-63-27.

Both teams were missing a shooter due to illness Tuesday evening, with the Bulldogs being without freshman point guard Kyleigh Wilkes and Panthers’ sophomore forward Karsyn Hager on the bench with an upper respiratory infection.

Height also created a disadvantage for the Bulldogs, with the tallest player on the team being a 5’11” freshman at center and several girls at 5’5″ or shorter.

“Rugby’s a good team, probably one of the better ones in the state,” said Bulldogs head coach Jodi Burrer. “Defensively they’re really good so they caused us a lot of problems.”

Rugby opened the first quarter with senior center Breanna Thompson getting two to go down. Thirty seconds later on a turnover, junior forward Madison Uhlenkamp passed the ball down to sophomore guard Anni Stier, who fed it back to Uhlenkamp for the second bucket of the game. The Bulldogs were held to just four points on the quarter, two coming from sophomore forward Emma Mitchell and the other coming from classmate Lashai Bercier. The Panthers scored 21 points on the quarter, including a last second floater by sophomore forward McKenzie Harner.

By the end of the third quarter, the Panthers held a commanding 55-17 lead, putting the newly-passed by the N.D. High School Activities Association running clock rule (with the exception of injuries and time-outs) into effect. The Bulldogs had their highest output of the game during the fourth quarter with 10 points, while the Panthers had their lowest output of the night with eight.

“These are tough games to play,” said Panthers’ head coach Jen Brossart. “Rolla’s got a good, talented team, they’re just very youthful right now.”

The Panthers traveled to Mohall for a double-header on Thursday, and travel to Minot on Dec. 28 to face Region 6 foes the Our Redeemer’s Christian School Knights at Minot State University.