Bobcat girls and Rebel boys pick up wins in dominant fashion
ARNOLD - Big quarters by the South Loup girls and the Arcadia-Loup City boys powered them to victories in Arnold on Jan. 19. The Bobcat girls won 56-35 and the Rebel boys dominated 51-26.
“They had a good inside force and Jessica Stieb gave us a lot of fits early on,” South Loup Girls Coach Abe Hinman said. “We ended up switching our defense up a little bit and changed our press up and that seemed to really change things.”
In the first quarter of the girls game, the Rebels were able to keep it close with good inside play. After a basket inside by Jessica Steib on a second-chance shot, the Rebels led by three with less than forty seconds in the first.
Megan Donnegan hit a three-pointer the next time down to tie the game up. The Rebels answered with a jumper to go up by two points.
Making her second-buzzer beater of the year for South Loup was Donegan, as she launched a shot from around half court and drained it. It gave the Bobcats a 13-12 lead at the end of one.
After scoring 12 in the first, A-LC followed that up by scoring 12 points again in the second period. The only issue for the Rebels was South Loup caught fire and had their highest point total of any quarter in the game with 21 points.
Landyn Cole had the last bucket of the half on a layup inside, giving South Loup a 34-24 lead at the half.
“The girls played so well the first half,” A-LC Girls Coach Jason Bott said. “We were able to get the ball inside and make a few shots outside. Defensively, we did a good job, till late in the second quarter.”
In the second half, things started to slow down offensively. The biggest factor in the Bobcats pulling out the win was their defensive intensity.
It forced the A-LC to put shots up both inside and outside that were contested. This resulted in the Rebels only scoring six in the third and five in the fourth.
“Our girls do a good of figuring out what is working well for other teams and then just adjusting from there as the game goes on,” Hinman said.
Leading the Bobcats in scoring was Cole with 19 points and 12 rebounds and Donnegan with 13 points and five rebounds. Ava Pandorf also chipped in with eight points and Jadeyn Bubak had seven points.
With her strong first half, Steib led the Rebels with 12 points and four rebounds. Finishing with eight points and four rebounds was Lindsi Loos and Halie Kaslon had 7 points and two rebounds.
In the boy’s game, A-LC took a 3-0 lead thanks to a three-pointer by Vince Eurek. A layup by Jadeyn Scott increased it to 5-0.
South Loup didn’t get on the board in the contest till Trey Connell made two free throws to make it 8-2.
The lead continued to grow for the Rebels to begin the second quarter as Prestyn Rogers picked off a past and got an easy layup. At halftime, the Rebels had a 25-11 lead.
The Bobcats had their best output of the game in the third with 12 points but defensively gave up 17 to A-LC. The quarter concluded with Jadyn Scott knocking down a three-pointer to go up 4223 heading to the fourth quarter.
The Rebels closed the final frame on a 9-3 run to win in dominating fashion.
“The first quarter we got off to a fast start, we forced a bunch of turnovers and got some easy baskets in transition,” A-LC Boys Coach Aaron Habe said. “We played very good in the halfcourt defensively as well. It was nice to shoot well on the road and get some confidence. We have been struggling when we aren’t at home so this was nice to see.”
Drew Lewandowski
led A-LC with 13 points and two steals in the win and Jadyn Scott was also in double figures with 12 points and six rebounds.
Freshman Cache Gracey finished with eight points for the Bobcats and Alex Shown had six
points.
The next game for the Rebels is on Jan. 29 vs Burwell and South Loup is taking part in the MNAC Tournament this week. The Bobcat boys and girls are the third seed in the tournament.