The Bonney Lake girls basketball team remained in the thick of the South Puget Sound League 3A playoff hunt last week, splitting a pair of division games.

The Panthers made the short excursion to Enumclaw High Jan. 18 and put on a clinic to beat the Hornet girls 51-32.

Panther senior guard Carli Elwin, who is currently leading the SPSL 3A in scoring with nearly 18 points per game, was red hot from the floor, as she knocked down 26 points against EHS.

By the end of the third quarter the Panthers had jumped out to sizable 36-19 advantage over the Hornets, before Enumclaw finally snapped out of it to tally 13 fourth-frame points. It was too little too late, though, as the Panthers finished off EHS for Bonney Lake’s fourth league conquest of the year.

Bonney Lake didn’t find the sledding quite as easy Friday when a visiting Auburn Mountainview club accrued a 26-15 halftime lead en route to defeating the Panthers 52-33.

The league setback lowered Bonney Lake’s SPSL 3A record to 4-3, but the Panther girls are certainly in the play-off chase as they close out the regular season by visiting Lakes Friday, then hosting winless Peninsula High Tuesday and Enumclaw High Feb. 4.