Bobcats cruise to 68-43 victory Friday

Last Friday an activities bus carrying the Bobcat boys basketball team left HSCHS with the passengers knowing they had a tough task in front of them - win the next two games and guarantee entry in the regional tournament without going through a "pigtail" qualifying game.

The first obstacle, Riverside, had fallen to the Bobcats by 18 points earlier in the season, and the Bobcats were heavily favored to defeat the scrappy but thin Rebels on their own floor.

At the end of the first quarter, coach Kevin Gerber may have wondered where that team was as he looked at the scoreboard reading Riverside - 7, Thermopolis - 6.

"We had decent looks at the basket, but the ball didn't seem to want to go in. Our defense was performing well, and I was confident that we would become more efficient on offense," said Gerber

His confidence was well placed as the Bobcats were up by nine points at halftime after an 18 point second quarter. The Cats cruised on to a 25 point victory, 68-43.

Tough "D" was led by Keegan Robbins who also turned in a double-double on offense (points and assists) scoring 10 first half points to lead the Bobcats to their halftime lead.

Balanced scoring was the rule against the Rebels as Herold and Cornwell both totaled 15 points each, Robbins with 14 and Jensen with nine kept the Riverside defense from concentrating on any one Bobcat.

Coach Gerber pointed out that teams often suffer circumstances that are not normal to their usual play, and that is why they have to "learn how to win" in those situations. The Bobcats returned from Riverside upbeat and confident that they would be ready for the next half of that task against Greybull.

At Greybull, it seemed the lesson was well earned, and the plan to "start fast" served the underdog Bobcats well as they lead at the half, 34-29.

"Our boys played so hard,"declared Gerber. "We installed a new defense to hold the Greybull big guys, and our kids did a great job of using it effectively...for three quarters. We still had a three point lead at the start of the fourth quarter. They went on a little run and got up on us by a few points (six) and time became important, so we started fouling their guys that were shooting under 40 percent on free throws. They hit six in a row and we couldn't gain on them."

Cornwell led Bobcat scorers with nine points from the floor and a superb 13 of 16 from the line for 22 points Jensen with 12 and Herold with 10 points were also in double figures.

"The final score (71-56) really doesn't show how even the game was. We were in the hunt until the last few minutes, and we think we can beat these guys."

Games on tap for the Bobcats are a non-conference game at Burlington Thursday, and a third go-round with Rocky Mountain after splitting two on the Bobcats' home floor.