If you haven’t seen the South Loup boys basketball team play yet this season, you are missing quite a show of athleticism, intensity, and incredible teamwork.

The Bobcats are now 10-2 on the season, with their second loss coming this past Monday at the hands of the Class C Hershey Panthers.

The game, which had been rescheduled due to the previous week’s snowstorm, was a tug-of-war for control of the scoreboard, with Hershey barely edging out South Loup, 48-56. At the end of the first quarter, the Bobcats were up by 3 points, but by the end of the first half the Panthers had edged ahead 22-26. The third quarter ended with Hershey up by one point, 38-39.

Cache Gracey scored an impressive 21 points and was 100-percent from the line, sinking all 6 of his free throws. Trey Connell and Lance Jones each added 8 points to the board.

Joey Sallach pulled down 6 rebounds, followed by Connell with 5 and freshman Crew Witthuhn with 4.

The JV narrowly lost at Hershey, coming up one point short 27-28 in three quarters. Witthuhn was the high scorer with 10 points, followed by AJ Star with 5 points. Starr and Lance Wooters each pulled down 6 rebounds.

On Friday, the Bobcats repeated their domination over the Maxwell Wildcats at Callaway, again winning by more than 20 points. The bench saw lots of play time, with all players seeing at least one quarter of play and most seeing four quarters.

The game started out slow, with each team scoring single digits in the first quarter. By half time, the Bobcats had picked up the lead 10-7. The third quarter belonged to the Bobcats, outsourcing the Wildcats 17-6. The fourth quarter was much of the same with the final score being 43-21.

Gracey again scored 20 points in a game, followed by Connell with 12 points. Connell had 5 rebounds, Jones and Witthuhn each had 4 rebounds.

The Bobcat JV team added a win over the Wildcats, 14-2 in two quarters. Witthuhn was the scoring leader with 6 points.

The Brady Eagles traveled to Arnold to take on the Bobcats on Saturday, and thrilled the home crowd with a 78-33 win. The Bobcats scored early and often - including 7 points in the first 50 seconds of the game. By the end of the first quarter, South Loup had scored 25 points to Brady’s 4 points. The starters were able to rest and cheer on the bench as they traded places and allowed the younger players to get more court time with all players seeing at least 3 quarters of play.

Gracey, thanks to quite a few long lobs down the court from Connell, was the high scorer with 20 points. Connell added 15 points and freshman Dylan Pandorf scored 12 and had a perfect shooting record for the night.

Connell and Sallach each had 5 steals and Kaden Paulsen had 2 blocks.

The Bobcats will host the Spartans of Ansley-Litchfield on Thursday in Arnold and kick off the MNAC tournament on Saturday. Watch the school’s Facebook page for brackets and tournament details.