They say Christmas is a time of giving, but the South Loup boys basketball team (6-1) didn’t get the memo before the Gilson-Pierce Memorial Tournament in Maxwell last week, as they took home the championship trophy and avenged the sting of coming in second last year.

The first round of play on Monday was a rematch of last year’s championship game, pitting the Bobcats against the Sandhills Valley Mavericks (Stapleton and McPherson County co-op team). There has always been a rivalry between Stapleton and Arnold, but last year the Mavericks beat the Bobcats in the championship game, ending their four-year holiday tournament winning streak.

This year the random draw for matchups put the Bobcats facing the Mavericks in the first round of play, giving the boys a chance for redemption - and that they did, beating them big time 64-27.

By the end of the first quarter, the Bobcats had outscored the Mavs 17-6, and didn’t let up. The Bobcats went into the locker room at the half, way ahead 33-12. The Bobcat defense kept the Mavs out of scoring range and by the end of the third quarter, the score was 46-19. The fourth quarter was the highest scoring for each team, with South Loup adding 18 more points and Sandhills Valley adding 8 points.

Trey Connell was the game’s high scorer, putting up 14 points, followed by Crew Witthuhn, Conner Paulsen, and Dylan Pandorf with 10 points each.

Joey Sallach had six defensive rebounds, Lance Jones had three offensive and three defensive rebounds, and Connell had five defensive rebounds.

Tuesday night the Bobcats took on the hosts, the Maxwell Wildcats and again dominated the court, winning the championship trophy by a score of 50-26.

Cache Gracey was the top scorer with 16 points, including three 3-pointers. Witthuhn put up 11 points and Connell added 9 points. Jones grabbed five rebounds, three offensive and two defensive; Connell had four defensive rebounds.

The Bobcats, who are now 6-1 on the season, are enjoying the success and looking forward to hitting the floor again after the Christmas break.

“We have had a great start to the first part of the season,” said senior Lance Jones. “We haven’t been 6-1 very many times in the history of the co-op so we are hoping to keep up the success in the last part of our season.”

The Bobcats will be back on the court Tuesday at Hershey. JV plays at 5 p.m. and varsity at 7:30 p.m.