Bobcats two-and-one in Lovell

After a long break for the holidays, the Bobcat boys basketball team returned to action on Friday in Lovell against hometown Lovell and conference rivals Rocky Mountain and Riverside.

The Bobcats came out of the holiday break with their pre-break momentum still in tact, and managed to finish two-and-one during their three games last weekend.

First up was Lovell, a team that featured a hard-to-stop duo of a six-foot-nine and six-foot-four player who teamed up for over half of the Bulldog's 74 points. "They're big," said coach Kevin Gerber, "Our boys went in, that was Noah [Schwalbe] and Keegan's [Robbin] task, to go in and battle them. We played them tough, but between the two players they scored 44 points."

Although the Bobcats this year are one of the bigger teams in the division, Gerber was optimistic about the Lovell game and the performance the team was able to muster against the two players that had between half a foot and a foot height difference over the Hot Springs players. "We see [Lovell] in a couple weeks, so our defense is going to have to be a little bit different. We have some plans for that as well."

Even with 44 points between two of the Bulldogs, the Bobcats offense was able to trade blows with the team and put up a whopping 61 points, the team's second best offensive performance of the season so far, two points shy of the Bobcat's prior engagement against Little Snake River.

The Bobcats remained undeterred after their shootout with the Bulldogs, narrowly edging out Rocky Mountain 44-42 in their second game of the tournament. "Rocky Mountain went 8-0 in the conference last year. We knew they graduated some kids, but still coming back to be fairly talented. We were able to go in and we played really good defense."

"Offensively we struggled a little bit from the line and finishing shots," Gerber said of the win. Still, the first-season coach sees substantial positive results from the narrow victory. "When the game was over, I felt like we had a lot of growth. We can still show, and I don't know if Rocky Mountain has got a whole lot more to give," even though he admitted the Bobcats are still trying to find their identity as a team.

The team's final game of the tournament against Riverside was proof of the Bobcats potential when given the chance to play continuously and without pause. The team was able to crush conference rival Riverside 53-36, holding their opponent to under 40 points as coach Gerber asked of them.

The Rebels, who are mid-table performers but still serious competition, were held to one of their lowest scoring results of the year so far.

"[We had] two big wins against conference opponents, two teams we're going to see again during the season," said Gerber. "All three games were really good, [and] we saw some good stuff and some stuff we can grow from for sure."

Gerber was still proud of his team's accomplishments after a momentary pause in practice. "With having a late start to the season now, we have a couple weeks and then you're into a couple tournaments then it's Christmas break. You see a lot of progress being made right when the holidays hit."

"With that, you've got two and a half weeks where you kind of hope what you gained hasn't been lost, and I think this weekend, in Lovell, was trying to work some of the cobwebs out. Little by little, over the weekend, we had a good game against Rocky and a better game against Riverside."

Not only do the scores confirm what Gerber reported, the team's individual statistics also show that the team is picking up speed. Most of the teams the Bobcats play have only one or two offensive threats that manage to carry their team to a win, but the Bobcats have five starters who consistently make a difference on both sides of the court.

"The thing that is probably the most impressive to me is, yeah each game I can say who performed really well, but we're very lucky because most of the teams we play, it's always going to be one or two of the same guys. Literally, out of the last nine games we've played, every starter has been the leading scorer in at least one game. That's huge. There aren't a lot of teams in the division that can say that."

When the dust settled on the Bobcats' tournament, Gerber was proved right. Noah Schwalbe had 15 points in each of the conference games, while Eric Herold, the team's go-to outside shooter, had four 3-pointers against Lovell and three three's against Riverside. Hudson Roling, called by Gerber the team's 'sixth man of the year,' is top-ten in the division in rebounds. "He's a tough, tough kid coming in as a sophomore."

"Our opponents don't know what is coming. They say, 'if we shut down Cornwell and Herold and Jensen, then we're good,' but then they have Keegan and Schwalbe to deal with. So for us, that's the thing I'm most happy with."

The Bobcats come home this weekend to take on Big Piney Friday and Meeteetse Saturday. The Bobcats have yet to face either one of these opponents, but it is safe to say they will come out of the gates firing on all cylinders as coach Gerber predicts.