Boys basketball season starts

The Bobcat boys basketball team started their season with a 2-1 record this weekend taking on Big Horn, Wright and Kaycee on the road.

Head coach Shane Corpening said their first game was a great measuring stick as to where the program is at.

“Big Horn has a solid basketball program and they always have good athletes,” Corpening said, “so the fact that we were able to grind out a win is huge for our program and an excellent start to our season.”

The game was neck and neck all the way to the buzzer and there were times Corpening felt they could have pulled away, but it just wasn’t happening.

“Offensively speaking,” Corpening said, “we did a great job of attacking the basket and making the correct reads. We were able to get excellent looks at the basket, but we definitely have to improve on finishing in the paint as we left, conservatively speaking, at least 15 points off the scoreboard.”

Corpening said he understands it was the first game, but it’s an area that they have to improve if they want to be competitive moving forward.

He was very pleased he had four Cats that scored in double figures against Big Horn.

Duder Harvey dropped in 12 points, Jarron Mortimore and Hardy Johnson both scored 11 points and Logan Shumway rounded out the quartet with 10 points.

“Logan Shumway provided us with a huge lift off the bench as he knocked down some big shots down the stretch,” Corpening said. “Hardy Johnson is a natural scorer and one of our better shooters. This was his first varsity start and I thought he responded well.

“We have come to expect Duder and Jarron to score for us, but having a good supporting cast alleviates a lot of the pressure and spreads out a defense which creates better opportunities for our offense.”

Defensively, the effort was there all game long.

Corpening said a major focus for the team this season is holding a tem to only one shop per possession. He added they did a great job with that against Big Horn, allowing only four “second chance” points.

The second game of the weekend saw them come out on top of Wright, 69-17.

Corpening said the goal against Wright was to push the tempo and play pressure defense. They accomplished both of those goals, forcing 29 turnovers and scoring 34 points off those turnovers. Additionally, they had a very fast start against Wright, outscoring them 26-3 in the first quarter.

“I think we were smelling blood in the water during this game as we were extremely aggressive from the tip,” Corpening said.

Again, balanced scoring was the key for the Cats with Harvey finishing with 15 points, Oran Coyne also had 15 while Johnson followed closely with 14 points and Mortimore tipping in 11.

“Something we try to teach our players is that there are hundreds of ways to positively impact a basketball game outside of scoring,” Corpening said. “Jarron Mortimore embodied that during this game as he not only had 11 points, but eight rebounds, seven blocks and five steals.”

The only loss for the weekend came as the Cats fell to Kaycee, 35-45.

“This game was tough as we lost Duder, Jarron, Cade McLean and Oran due to the ACT test,” Corpening said. “We were extremely shorthanded and had to play some players that normally don’t play varsity.

“Regardless, our team stepped up and played their tails off.”

Senior Sterling Gerber really put the team on his back during this game as he scored 17 points and hit some huge shots down the stretch. He hit a buzzer beater from to corner to give the Cats a one-point lead going into the fourth quarter.

From there, the game was neck and neck until about midway through the fourth quarter when Gerber fouled out.

“Our starting five played pretty much the entire game and I think we just ran out of gas at the end,” Corpening said. “Like I’ve said, I was extremely proud of the fight and resiliency that we had during this game.”

This week, the Bobcats will take on Burlington at home Saturday with the JV playing at noon at TMS and the boys hitting the home court at 3 p.m.