Bobcats face Worland at home Saturday

Last weekend the Bobcats went up against Powell Friday night with a 57-43 loss, and against Lovell Saturday with a 58-33 loss.

Coach Shane Corpening said the boys got off to an extremely slow start against Powell, missing at least three or four layups in the first quarter, and only making four points while giving up 14. "A slow start really hurt us in that game because the rest of the game the scoring was pretty balanced. The scoring was even the second quarter, they outscored us by six in the third and then we outscored them by four in the fourth."

The offense looked better after the first quarter, Corpening said, but didn't like the defense giving up 57 points. "The honest problem we just weren't moving our feet. We were not closing as well as we could on shooters. We allowed way too much dribble penetration and easy shots for Powell."

Another frustrating thing was only getting 13 defensive rebounds, about half of what the team averages. The Bobcats also had 15 turnovers, which is still too many, Corpening said, but better than they have been.

There are three things that need cleaned up - rebounds, turnovers and consistency - Corpening said, and once those are cleaned up they will be matching well with everyone they play.

Jarron Mortimore played a good game with 13 points on seven shots, Corpening said, and was in foul trouble the whole game so be played only about two quarters worth. Duder Harvey also had a nice game, the coach added, with 12 points on 10 shots. Corpening also added Logan Shumway did a good job at his first start of the season, grabbing six points and a few rebounds.

As for the Lovell game, Corpening said they knew they were going to get zoned and the boys responded well with some good shooting. "Hardy Johnson stepped up as a freshman coming into a varsity game, and hit four three-pointers for us. That was an outstanding effort by him."

At the half Lovell was leading 20-16 and the team was felling fairly good about themselves. Corpening had a feeling their opponents would switch to man-to-man in the second half, which they did and the Bobcats responded well. However, Lovell got on a big scoring run, putting up 12 in the first minute.

The boys had some of the same issues such as not moving their feet on defense, 16 turnovers and fouling too much. Corpening added they were also settling too much for outside jumpers rather than getting the ball inside.

Other standout performances, Corpening said, were Mortimore's eight points on nine shots and Jase Longwell's grabbing six rebounds in only about a quarter of play time.

The boys will next be at Newcastle on Friday with a 6 p.m. tipoff time, and at home against Worland on Saturday with a 7 p.m. tipoff.

The first time Thermopolis played Newcastle this season, Corpening noted they played them tough and held them to a six-point game, and the Bobcats have improved since them. "If we can keep them under 40 points that's going to give us our best chance to win."

As for Worland, Corpening said they are an extremely athletic team. "They can shoot the ball very well from the outside so they present some challenges. We're going to have to do our homework to determine what we're going to do defensively. Honestly, if we play well and we do those three things - we limit turnovers, rebound the ball well and are consistent - I have no doubt we can compete with both teams."