The South Loup boys brought home the bronze from the Mid-Nebraska Activities Conference (MNAC) basketball tournament this past weekend.

The tournament started with a Bobcat win against the Arthur County Wolves in Arnold on Tuesday, Jan. 28. The Bobcats came into this game on a roll with a fourgame win streak where they had outscored their opponents by an average of 18.8 points.

The Bobcat’s lead started early against the Wolves with a 2-point lead at the end of the first quarter that had grown to 10 points by the end of the half. The boys continued to play strongly on both offense and defense keeping their opponents from scoring more than 8 points in all four quarters. In the end, the Bobcat boys lengthened their win streak to five games with a 71-29 win.

Crew Witthuhn led the balanced scoring attack for South Loup with 16 points, followed closely by Dylan Pandorf with 13, and Conner Paulsen with 11. Witthuhn also pulled down 11 rebounds and blocked three shots. Paulsen contributed defensively with his speed on the court stealing the ball from the Wolves six times.

Unfortunately, the streak didn’t continue due to a tough game against the Twin Loup Wolves on Thursday, Jan. 30, in North Platte. The Bobcats had lost to this team previously in the season by a score of 35-51. Last week's game may have had the same end result, but the Bobcats put up a strong fight against a strong team that went on to win the entire tournament.

This was a close game that started with a Bobcat lead by one point at the end of the first quarter. The Bobcats lost their lead but kept close until the end to finish with a final score of Wolves 54 to Bobcats 44.

cont. PAGE 8: Conference Tourney The loss came despite a brilliant effort by Witthuhn who racked up 26 of the teams 44 points. He also had 9 rebounds and 2 steals in the game. The remaining points for the Bobcats came from Paulsen and Pandorf who each scored nine.

The Bobcats came back to fight against the Sandhills- Thedford Knights at the Mid-Plains Community College campus in North Platte on Saturday. This was the second time the Bobcats had met the Knights, which resulted in another Bobcat win. Senior AJ Starr had a stand-out game scoring 6 points from outside the 3-point line, three of which were the first points of the game.

“Conference was really fun,” Starr commented. “It was cool to have the opportunity to get redemption against Twin Loup although we fell short.”

Pandorf led the scoring for South Loup with 17 points, followed closely by Witthuhn with 15. Witthuhn and Starr each had 12 rebounds in the game.

The win earned the Bobcats third place in the conference standings.

The team is back in action this evening, Feb. 6, at Mullen and will host Southern Valley on Saturday, Feb. 8. Tip-off for the boys varsity game is set for 5:30 p.m. in Callaway.