BLACKFOOT — When the Snake River and Blackfoot girls’ basketball teams met in Moreland Nov. 30, the game was played at a frenetic pace with neither team playing much, if any, defense.

    As a result it when into double overtime and the Panthers escaped with a 73-70 win.

    Thursday night the two teams renewed their rivalry, and this time defense was the key for Snake River as the Panthers earned a 50-28 victory and the season sweep over rival Broncos at Blackfoot High School.

    The Panthers held the Broncos to just eight first-half points by playing tight pressure defense and aggressively jumping into passing lanes. It also helped that Blackfoot head coach Merle Smith implemented a new offense that slowed down the pace of the game, favoring the Panthers.

    “I installed a new offense that I thought would work against a bigger team, and it didn’t,” Smith said. “We slowed the pace down and missed a lot of shots. Our defense did not hurt us tonight, our offense did.”

    While the Snake River defense was good, the offense was not. The Panthers could only muster 20 first-half points and half of those were scored by Madison Pilster.

    “We held them to eight points in the first half, our defense was ready to play,” Snake River head coach Rich Dunn said. “We sustained our effort in the second half and caught them on a night were they did not shoot the ball well.”

    Snake River led 20-8 at halftime.

    Blackfoot came out aggressive to start the second period by getting back-to-back layups from Morningrose Tobey and Cassandra Clarke. But the defense could not slow down Pilster and former Bronco Kylie Coby.

    “We played more as a team in this game and we kept our composure, we gelled a lot more and just played our game,” Coby said.

    Pilster, also a former Bronco, seems to love playing against her previous team and Thursday night was no different as she led the Panthers with a game-high 16 points.

    “These games mean a lot to me because the players on the other team always give me a hard time about leaving,” Pilster said. “I guess I just have to go and leave my mark.”

    Coby made her mark in the fourth quarter for the Panthers, scoring eight of her 10 points in the final 4:46 of the game.

    “I feel like the team I am on now is more of a family,” Coby said of her Snake River teammates. “We practice so hard in practice everyday, we have an amazing coaching staff and it just feels good to be a part of the Snake River family.”

    To go with Pilster’s 16 and Coby’s 10 points, Makena Shelley added nine.

    Tobey, who scored 31 points in the first meeting, was held to 12 on Thursday.

    Snake River (9-1) hosts Bear Lake Jan. 3 while Blackfoot (1-11) hosts Hillcrest the same night. Both games tipoff at 7:30 p.m.