Bobcats end regular season with an overtime win

After a slow first quarter, the Bobcats regrouped and rebounded to earn a 51-45 win over Boyd County.

Mason Hoke scored 20 points and Keegan Smith pumped in another 10 to lead the Bobcats in Friday’s win, played in Orchard.

The Spartans cruised to a 15-7 first-quarter advantage, but the Bobcats answered with 16 points in the second quarter, to trail by one at the half.

Boyd County expanded its lead to four points by the end of the third quarter, up 34-30.

With under 30 seconds left in the final stanza, the Bobcats held a narrow, 44-41, lead. After a foul, Boyd County went to the line to shoot free throws. They converted the first shot and missed the second, but nabbed an offensive rebound and a put back to tie it at 44 with 13 seconds remaining.

The Bobcats pushed the ball up the court and called multiple time outs to set up in-bound plays.

The Spartans made a couple great defensive plays to stuff two Bobcat game-winning shots and force overtime.

Summerland struck first in overtime with a three pointer by Smith.

After the shot, the Bobcats never looked back.

Boyd County was unable to score a single bucket from the field in overtime and were forced to foul. The Bobcats made enough free throws down the stretch to put away the Spartans, 51-45.

Despite adding a “w” to the team’s record, Coach Jacob Birch said Friday night was another case of a slow start for the team.

“Number 5 from Boyd County, Ethan McBride, was on fire in the first quarter and had 13 points. In the second quarter, we slowly started working our way back and, throughout the rest of the game, we did a nice job to fight back to an overtime win.”

Birch said the Bobcats had several things to improve on from that game.

He added, “Overall, our kids showed a good amount of toughness to battle back for a win after being down big early.”

Statistics versus Boyd County:

Hoke: 20p, 6r, 2a, 1s, 1bl, 5to

Smith: 10p, 3r, 1s, 5to

Dalton Rotherham: 4p, 5r, 4a, 2s, 1bl, 5to

Ty Rix: 2p, 2r, 1a, 1s, 2to

Dillon Moser: 3p, 8r, 2s, 1to

Logan Eacker: 5p, 5r, 1to

Kellen Mlnarik: 2p, 5r, 1s, 2to

Trevor Thomson: 1r, 2s

Joe Ahlers: 5p, 6r, 1a, 1s, 1bl