If you’re a South Loup Bobcat basketball player, what do you do when you are ranked in the top five teams in the state for Class D1? You keep winning - this time bringing home the Mid-Nebraska Activities Conference (MNAC) Championship trophy.

The Bobcats, who are 14-2 for the season, just keep dropping the buckets to outscore and the defense hustles to out maneuver their opponents. They are on a 6-game win streak and both of their losses this season have come from class C2 opponents.

The Bobcats started out their MNAC tournament seeded at the top and hosted the Arthur County Wolves last Tuesday in Arnold. By the end of the first quarter, the score was 16-9 and the Bobcats continued to turn up the heat, heading into the locker room at halftime with a score of 30-15. But the third quarter is where the Bobcats really cranked out the points - scoring 32 points in those 8 minutes. The final score of this quarterfinal game was 67-28.

Unofficial stats have junior Cache Gracey scoring a season-high 41 points in this game. Official stats were not available by press time.

On Thursday, the Bobcats met the Sandhills Thedford Knights in the semifinals at North Platte Community College. The Knights were desperately looking for a win and gave the Bobcats more than one scare on the court. But in the end, the team kept their eyes on that championship banner and pulled out a 40-34 win.

During the first quarter, it seemed like the Bobcats were in control, scoring 14 points to ST’s 8 points. But going into halftime, the Knights had evened things up to bring the score to 20-20. The third quarter kept the score even 29-29, but the Bobcats were able to crank up the pressure and come out on top thanks to a strong defense and smart ball handling in the fourth quarter.

The unofficial high scorer of the game was Gracey, but this time with 10 points. The official stats were unavailable by press time.

Come Saturday, the Bobcats were ready to face off against the much taller Mullen Broncos in the championship game. The Broncos, with at least one-third of their team standing at more than 6-feet tall, were unable to use that height advantage over the Bobcats as the boys adjusted their passes to stay lower to the ground and not use the “Hail Mary” lob pass down court that Trey Connell and Gracey seem to have perfected.

By the end of the first quarter, the Bobcats had effectively shut down the Broncos scoring, 11-2. But after a few adjustments, Mullen had narrowed the gap by the end of the second, 22-18. Whatever magic was spun in the locker room during half-time put the wind back in the Bobcat’s sails and they came out to score another 11 points to Mullen’s 4 during the fourth quarter to make the score 33-22.

The fourth quarter saw both teams get into foul trouble with Lance Jones picking up his fifth of the night, and multiple Broncos players leaving the game for intentional fouls in an attempt to stop the clock and disrupt the momentum the Bobcats had built up.

The final score of the game was 50-39. Unofficial top scorers were Connell with 18, Joey Sallach with 13, and Gracey with another 10. Gracey scored a total of 61 points throughout the tournament. The official stats were not available by press time.

The Bobcats will travel to Mullen for a varsity-only game on Friday, and then to Southern Valley on Saturday.