Bobcats look to finish season strong
JOHN HAMILTON | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 6 months, 3 weeks AGO
Finishing strong is the goal for the Superior Bobcats boys basketball team.
Coach Jake McElroy and his Bobcats, now 4-4 in District 14C play and 10-6 overall, complete the regular season this week with conference games at St. Regis Friday and with Noxon in Superior Saturday.
“We want to finish strong, to be playing our best heading into tournament play,” McElroy said. “We know that going into St. Regis will be a hostile environment and look forward to that game. That’s one you circle on the calendar at the start of the season, I’m sure both teams will be ready, being a rivalry game and all.”
Ranked No. 4 in the latest Montana Class C power poll, coach Jesse Allan and his Tigers will be fresh off another key 14C game with Two Eagle River in Pablo Thursday when they come winging back into St. Regis Friday for their big game with the Bobcats.
St. Regis currently leads the conference with an 8-0 record in 14C play and is 16-0 overall while Two Eagle is 7-1 in league action and 13-3 overall.
McElroy and his Bobcats got an eyeful of the Eagles for themselves in Pablo Friday, falling to Two Eagle 66-54. The Eagles ran out to a 16-4 lead in the first quarter and extended the advantage to as much as 20 points in the second quarter before settling for a 41-25 advantage at halftime.
The Bobcats rallied a few times in the second half, drawing to within nine (59-50) at one point in the fourth quarter before the Eagles finally secured the win. “The bad start hurt,” McElroy said. “But we did not play badly, shot poorly but did some pretty good stuff.”
One very good thing the Bobcats did was feature a balanced scoring attack. Gannon Quinlan, who was recently honored for scoring the 1,000th point of his career for Superior, led the way 13 points, Landon Richards scored 12, Logan Merrill 11 and Phin Cataldo and Amarie Johnson nine apiece.
Talan Addison led the undisputedly dangerous Eagles with 25 points, Thomas Addison added 11, and Ryiley Gates and Jayvian Burke nine each.
“Two Eagle is for real, a very good team. And St. Regis is St. Regis, another very good team,” McElroy said about seeing the other best teams in 14C these past few weeks. “We look for a tough game with them in St. Regis Friday.”
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