Bobcats earn two key wins over Wolves to begin year
CALLAWAY - The South Loup girls and boys basketball teams started their seasons off on the right note with two victories over Twin Loup on Friday, Dec. 4. In the girls’ game, the Bobcats won 5917, and in the boys’ game South Loup won 50-21.
Landyn Cole got things going for the Bobcats with an eight-foot jumper for the first basket of the game. That was followed up by a layup inside by Jadeyn Bubak for South Loup.
Getting things going for Twin Loup was Alexis Mauler. She picked up a bucket on a four-foot jumper underneath.
Down the stretch in the first, South Loup clamped down on their defense. They held the Wolves without a basket and went on a 19-0 scoring run that was finished off with a three-pointer by Megan Donegan.
Breaking the Bobcats scoring run was Elsie Ottun for Twin Loup. She powered her way inside for a basket, cutting the deficit to 23-5.
The quarter ended with a made jumper by Megan Donegan for the Bobcats, extending the lead back out to 20
The Wolves continued to struggle to find ways to score in the second, with only two points the entire quarter. Much of this was thanks to the relentless pressure put on by South Loup.
Both of those points came at the free-throw line by Mauler.
The Bobcats had their second-best quarter of the night, putting up fifteen points. Bailey Schwartz had the final basket of the half with a three-pointer to give South Loup a 40-7 lead heading into halftime.
“This was a tough game to open the season with,” Twin Loup girls coach Ken Wright said. “They are very aggressive, talented and deep. They also have a veteran team, and we don’t. Add to it that about half our team was quarantined and missed quite a few practices going into this weekend, it was a recipe for a disaster.”
In the second half, things did improve for Twin Loup. Not too far into the third, Kathryn Folkers picked up her first basket of the game to make the score 42-9.
The Bobcats answered that made shot with two three-point field goals. The first one by Donegan and then another by Bailey Schwarz.
At the end of three-quarters of play, South Loup had a 49-13 advantage over the Wolves.
To start the final period, Twin Loup was able to pick up back to back baskets. The first one was by Abi Lewis and the second was by Cassidy Grint.
The Bobcats capped off the game with a midrange jumper by Ava Pandorf and a 14-foot jumper by Laney Badgley.
“I thought our girls played really well on Fri
day night versus Twin Loup,” South Loup girls coach Abe Hinman said. “We got a ton of shot attempts, rebounded the ball really well and put a lot of pressure, defensively, on them. Megan had a great night scoring 25 and the whole team did really well on the defensive side of the ball.”
The leading scorer for South Loup was Megan Donegan with 25 points, followed by Bailey Schwarz and Cole with nine points. On the boards, Mya Weverka had nine rebounds and Taylor Ross had four.
Ottun led Twin Loup with six points, followed by Mauler with four, and Kathryn Folkers and Abi Lewis with two.
In the boys’ game, it was a lot of the same issues for the Wolves. A young inexperienced team, just could not keep up with the scoring of the Bobcats.
“That was our first game and being young we learned a lot,” Twin Loup boys coach Chris Beran said. “Some of that stuff we were able to use in our second game and there is some stuff we still need to work on. This year there is going to be slow growth, but we are moving in the right direction.”
During the first quarter, the Bobcats were able to shutout Twin Loup 110. This was followed up by a 16-8 second quarter, to put South Loup ahead 27-8 at halftime.
Out of the break, the
Bobcats continued to put the pressure on the Wolves. This resulted in a 15-3 advantage in favor of South Loup.
In the final quarter, Twin Loup had its best scoring output with ten points. This helped them lead the scoring category for the fourth 10-8.
“I thought that it was a good first game for our boys,” South Loup boys coach Jeff Cole said. “They came out with a lot of energy on both ends of the floor and were just excited for an opportunity to get to play ball. Although we didn’t shoot the ball well, I was very pleased with the boy’s energy. Their defensive energy was outstanding and they did a good job of
attaching the basket offensively.”
Leading the Bobcats in scoring was Drew Vickers with 13 points. Alex Shown finished the evening with 11 points and Cobi Smith had 10.
Shown led the team in rebounds with seven and Owen Stallbaumer had six.
For the Wolves, freshman Quincey Ryker had 10 points and Cael Richardson had six.
Senior Quade Young paced the team on the boards with nine and Rusty Oxford and Cael Richardson had five.
South Loup also had a game on Dec. 5 at Amherst that they split. The boys lost 66-21 to the Broncos and the girls won 39-29.