The McKenzie girls lost to Excel 60-33 on Tuesday night, but head coach Ezell Powell said he’s impressed by his team’s improvement.

“We’ve grown a lot since our first game,” he said. “We can execute on offense and defense, and that’s allowing us to stay in games.”

The Tigers trailed Excel 10-8 at the end of the first quarter, but the margin at halftime was 36-19.

McKenzie trimmed the lead down to 43-29 at the end of the third quarter, but the Panthers held the Tigers at bay down the stretch.

“Our bench is really developing for us,” Powell said. “When we started the season, we didn’t have much depth to come into the game when our starters get tired. Just like our starting five have improved, the bench is getting better too.”

“I’m proud of all of them,” he added.

Aleshia Stuckey led the Tigers against Excel with 12 points, while Anna Howell had nine.

The Tigers were coming off a 58-25 loss to W.S. Neal on Monday in which Stuckey was again the leading scorer with nine points.