The Portal Lady Panthers lost some key players from last year’s squad who won a state playoff game for the first time in school history. This year the Panthers have struggled a little out of the gate as they are 5-6 overall and 3-4 in region play. 

Portal is 4-3 in their last seven games and helping to lead the way is sophomore London Blackmon, who is leading the team in scoring and rebounding with 13.8 points per game and over eight rebounds per contest.

London works extremely hard on both sides of the ball,” Newton said. “She has a very high motor. London is our leading scorer and ranks top five in several categories in our region. Her ceiling is high and we look forward to watch her develop as a player over the next few years.”

“I feel like my role on this team is to hustle and get points and rebounds offensively,” Blackmon said. “On defense I feel like my role is to play hard and try to get steals and fast breaks. 

"I think as a team we are much stronger this year and we communicate better. I feel like we are doing better even though we lost our top starters from last year."