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Boys struggle at regionals

Coach: "They made me a better person"

The Thermopolis Bobcats had a tough time at the 3A Regional Tournament in Buffalo last week, losing to Douglas 72-30 on Thursday, and to Rawlins 51-38 Friday.

Of Douglas, Thermopolis Coach Kevin Gerber said they went on to win regionals on our side, and they certainly showed why they were up there the whole season. The Bearcats played their best game at the tournament, Gerber said, noting several other coaches said the same.

Douglas didn't do anything unexpected when they played the Bobcats, Gerber said, and didn't throw out any crazy plays. "We didn't match the intensity they brought into the tournament," he said, adding at any level, going into those final tournaments of the season, the level of play has to come up immensely. "We just didn't match their play, unfortunately, in that game."

Going into the fourth quarter, Gerber put a lot of guys in, including some of the JV members, to make sure they all got some court time as well.

"When you lose by 42," Gerber said, "it's hard to say anybody really had a good game. Obviously, Hudson [Roling] and Will [DeVries], the three quarters they played they played pretty well. They scored 23 of our 30 points between the two of them."

Gerber added, "It was not our best game, by any means."

Scoring against Douglas were: Roling - 13; DeVries - 10; Liam Aaron - 2; Brett Nicodemus - 2; Noah Schwalbe - 2; and Logan Bartholomew - 1.

As for Rawlins, which ended up taking third, Gerber said they weren't new to the team, having played them twice already this season, and he felt confident it was a game they could win. He commended sophomore Jaxon Davis, who had his first start at the game and went four for four from the field and scored nine points overall. Davis also had four rebounds - three of which were offensive - as well as three assists.

"To me," Gerber said, "that was very encouraging, especially looking into the future."

All season, the coach said, his biggest struggle was finding five guys who work best to start and play well the majority of the time. While steps were made in that regard, he noted, they still weren't playing their best. He would've liked to see them put a whole game together and "play the basketball I know they're completely capable of doing, but after you've lost that many in a row it's really hard to keep that idea up for them. I think they struggle mentally with that some."

Gerber pointed out there were times when the Bobcats would catch up to the Outlaws, at one time trailing by only one point, but then fall off.

Scoring against Rawlins were: Schwalbe - 13; Roling - 10; Davis - 9; Bartholomew - 4; and DeVries - 2.

As for a silver lining, Gerber said they didn't go to state, but they lost against the teams that took first and third at regionals. "Those are the two best opponents on your side that you're going to meet," he said. "We played the two best teams on our side of the bracket, and they got the better of us."

The losses at regionals were not the way they wanted to end the season, by any means, and Gerber said the boys "had some basketball left in them, for sure." He always struggles to find words for the team after a hard loss, and there's no magic phrase to help. "I wasn't ready to be done," he said, "and I don't think these boys were ready to be done. That's probably what hurt the most.

"I'm never ready for the season to be over when it is over, but this year especially I just felt we really were trying to find our own and with all the adversity we went through the entire season - we had our highs and lows all season long - and I definitely believe its going to make them strong young men."

Gerber noted he doesn't know what kind of college players will graduate from here, and whether they'll go on to careers in the NBA, but he knows there will be husbands and fathers, employees and employers that come out of this program and he hopes they go on to be productive members of society. He wants them to be good basketball players, but more importantly wants to see them with high integrity and their hearts open to others.

Gerber already spent some time this weekend on coaching websites and looking at off-season workout plans and determining where they want to go with the basketball program. While their record doesn't show it, he believes the 2016-17 season was a step in the right direction and he hopes the boys look at back at how they grew.

"I only hope they took as much away from the season as I did. I definitely think they made me a better person for sure and I hope they made a fraction of difference in their lives."

Looking forward from here, Gerber said they now know what the 3A division is all about. He plans to work hard during the off-season, and hopes the boys put in the effort to make themselves better and stronger. "I'm really excited about the future of this program, for sure," he said. "It always takes a few years to get things going when a new person comes in, and I think we took a step in the right direction and I'm excited about what we can do going forth."

 

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