Boys open against Outlaws

The Bobcats put forth a strong effort last week but came up short with three losses - 63-47 against Newcastle, 75-44 against Buffalo and 63-24 against Douglas.

Coach Shane Corpening, speaking on the Newcastle game, said the Bobcats played well for three quarters, and were actually leading going into the third quarter. He believed they were on the cusp of making a big run to make it difficult for the Dogies to keep up.

Unfortunately, Newcastle made a monstrous run of their own and kept things neck and neck through the third, though Thermopolis was only down by three going into the fourth. However, Newcastle extended its lead early into the fourth with five or six three-pointers. Corpening noted Newcastle has a couple big guards who "knew how to close down a game," hitting a couple shots that ignited a run, and while their opponents' rim seemed to get bigger the Bobcats' only shrank and it was difficult for Thermopolis to come back.

Corpening said Duder Harvey had a good performance with 10 points, and Adley Coyne gave the team a lift off the bench with six. Jarron Mortimore filled up his stat sheet with eight points, 10 rebounds and five assists.

As for the next game, "Buffalo is Buffalo," Corpening said with a laugh. "I don't know what else to say. They're the number one team in the state and they're playing really good basketball right now. They jumped out on us to a 23-4 lead, and you just can't have that if you want to compete."

Scoring the rest of the game remained fairly solid, the coach noted, with Thermopolis outscored 20-18 in the second quarter and 20-7 in the third, but outscoring Buffalo 15-12 in the fourth. "You take away that rough first quarter and it's a different game."

One thing they tried to do, Corpening said, is try to force Buffalo to take outside shots; unfortunately, on that night, they were hitting them. "It's frustrating when that happens," Corpening said, "when the game plan you put in doesn't work." Other negatives for the Bobcats were the 26 turnovers and giving up more than 20 offensive rebounds, as the latter was allowing Buffalo plenty of second chance shots when they missed their three-pointers and outside shots.

Corpening said if they clean up their turnovers and offensive rebounding they could've had a different game. The Cats definitely played better than they did earlier this year, he said, so that was encouraging.

Regarding Douglas, Corpening said it was similar to Buffalo, with Thermopolis going down 19-2 in the first quarter. "They're an excellent three-point shooting team," Corpening said, and the Bobcats failed to see one go through the net. "We didn't get into our offense, we didn't wait for the shot we wanted to get."

Corpening said the last game was tough, as he was hoping to see a better showing on Senior Night. He told the boys afterward that the game didn't make much difference with regard to their seeding at regionals, for which he is getting the boys as prepared as possible. Their first match is against Rawlins at 7:30 p.m.

Corpening said we have the toughest quad in the state here, with Buffalo, Douglas and Newcastle, and Rawlins is a solid team with several players at six feet for taller. "They're going to be a big team that presents some challenges. We've got to really take care of the ball this week and really box out against them." With a field goal percentage of about 50 percent, Corpening said taking care of the ball and getting those looks are very important. "Our margin for error has to be extremely small."

Regional play is almost like a new season, Corpening said, and anything can happen.