Runners to your mark!

It may be basketball season but Superior Bobcat girls coach Jeff Schultz wants his team thinking of another fast-paced sport.

“We want to turn it into a track meet,” Schultz said of the Lady Cats’ relentless pressure defensive attack. “We hang our hats on our team defense, on creating opportunities to score, on making life miserable for the other team’s point guards.

“When we do,” he added, “it’s beautiful thing to see.”

Although harassment of opposing players may seem kind of rude, Schultz likes it and encourages the chaos his girls create with their tenacious play. Superior’s opponents certainly don’t seem to appreciate this press-first, ask-questions-later approach, often responding with turnovers and frustration, in turn leading to more of the same.

The Bobcats got off to a running start with two such wins last week at the Hamilton Tip-Off tournament, running past Philipsburg 58-36 Friday and the Hamilton JV 48-40 Saturday.

Now 2-0 in non-conference action, the Cats face two other unbeaten foes this week, hosting Lincoln Thursday and visiting Seeley-Swan in Seeley Lake Friday.

“We had better be ready to rock and roll or we will be in trouble with Lincoln and in Seeley, these are two very skilled teams,” Shultz said and then added. “I would like to thank our athletic director for getting us such quality opponents. Early season games like this can only make you better in the long run.”

In the short run, the prolific Josie Crabb led Superior in scoring in both wins last week, dropping 18 points on P-burg Friday and 24 more on Hamilton Saturday.

Makenzie Reum added 15 points against Granite and Ava White 12.

Against the Hamilton JV, White again scored 12 points, Lily Jasper chipped in six and Maggie Haworth five.

Schultz is impressed with the harassment ability of Jasper and White in particular on the defensive end. “Those two are terrors on the other point guards, really get after them,” he said. “We are looking forward to more of that.”