Bobcats drop two close basketball games

The Hot Springs County High School boys basketball varsity team was in Worland last Thursday night for a tough contest against their long-standing rivals. Although the Cats played well, the Warriors came away with a win by a score of 62 to 51.

The Warriors deployed a 1-2-1-1 press defense, that initially threw the Bobcats off their game, resulting in five turn-overs on the Cats first six possessions. Once they settled into the game, however, the Cats became more effective on offense, with Dell Dukes leading the way pushing the pace of the game, putting up points and providing some very good defense.

For their side, the Bobcats deployed a 2-3 zone defense that seemed to frustrate the Warriors. Thermopolis played well in the second half, matching Worland in intensity and pace, and holding down the scoring, until the last minute of the third quarter.

From there, however, the Warriors began to pull away. Although the fourth quarter saw a plethora of turn-overs by both teams, being behind on the scoreboard, the Cats really needed the turn-overs to go primarily against Worland.

Ellis Webber had a good game on both ends of the court, exhibiting tough defensive skills, and putting up two points on an intentional foul by Worland.

Jhett Longwell had 4 points, Kanyon Gerber had 2 point, Cody Bomengen had 5 points (including a 3-pointer), Ellis Webber had 2 points, Will Coale had 2 points, Dell Dukes had 17 points, Armani Dukes had 4 points, Zak Hastie had 11 points (including three 3-point shots) and Brody Potter had 4 points.

After the game, coach Shane Corpening commented, “We really spread the scoring around, and that was good to see. We had some bad turn-overs in the game, but we rebounded well. We played well in space, getting a number of fast breaks, but our defense needs to get better at keeping the ball out of the paint. We have things to work on, but we’ll get there.”

On Friday, the Bobcats were at home to meet up with the team from Lovell. Lovell came into the week-end ranked number three. In a low scoring game, that provided a lot of good defense, the Bobcats went down by a score of 44 to 41.

In the first period, the two teams matched up well, with each team scoring just eight points. The second period saw more of the same, with Lovell going ahead by a small margin of 3 points.

Lovell began to pull away a bit in the third quarter, leaving the Cats down by a score of 31 to 23 as the period came to a close. Thermopolis then deployed a very tight, full-court press that gave the Bulldogs fits, leading to turn-overs and giving the Bobcats an opportunity to put the game within reach, pulling to within two points with five seconds left in the game.

The Dukes brothers, Dell and Armani, provided great defense in the paint and proved to be a commanding presence off the glass. While the Cats moved the ball well, at times they seemed to move the ball without a strategic purpose, cross-court passes that didn’t really provide an opening to score. When they moved the ball with intent, however, they were very effective in moving the ball inside for resulting points. While the Cats had many good looks at three-point shots, they weren’t able to get most of them to drop through the net.

In the end, the Cats dropped a game, they could just have easily have won.

Jhett Longwell had 6 points, Cody Bomengen had 3 points, Will Coale had 1 point Dell Dukes had 4 points, Armani Dukes had 2 points, Zak Hastie had 9 points (including two 3-pointers) and Brody Potter had 16 points (including two 3-point shots).

Coach Corpening said, “Brody had a really good game, and that was good to see. Our strong defense forced Lovell to speed up the game, and that is not normally what they want to do. Turn-overs were a problem that we will work on.”

The Cats travel to Lyman and Mountain View this week, for games against two teams that will present new challenges. “Lyman likes to play a slower paced game, and we will need to speed things up a bit. Mountain View, on the other hand, is not a big team, but they are scrappy. Ball security will be key to winning that game,” said coach Corpening.

See the school calendar on this page for game times.