With their sights set on the D1-10 sub district tournament beginning Monday, the South Loup Bobcat basketball team (17-4) took it easy on Friday against the SEM Mustangs in their last regular season game of the year in Callaway.

The Mustangs outscored the Bobcats 7-20 in the first quarter and 6-16 in the second quarter. At the end of the first half, the Bobcats were down 13-36. The third and fourth quarters were more evenly scored, with the Bobcats sinking more buckets than the Mustangs, 34-23, but the deficit was too much to come back from.

Trey Connell scored 16 points for the Bobcats. Cache Gracey was right behind Connell with 15 points, and senior Silas Cool added 5 points.

Connell led the team with 6 rebounds, and Lance Jones also grabbed 6 rebounds.

The JV also fell to SEM in two quarters, 20-37. Freshman Conner Paulsen scored 9 points to lead the Bobcats, followed by Dylan Pandorf with 4 points.

The Bobcats opened their subdistricts on Monday at St. Pat’s in North Platte against the Overton Eagles, and came out with the victory 67-43. They then faced St. Pat’s on Tuesday. Results of that game were not available at press time. Four of the top 10 teams will play in the same subdistrict as the Bobcats: St. Pat’s, Maywood Hayes Center, Elm Creek, and South Loup. The Bobcats are currently ninth in wildcard points and MaxPreps.com has them ranked seventh. Despite having the top three teams in the state in their subdistrict, they could advance to the district and state tournaments thanks to their standings in the wildcard race. Full details on subdistrict results will be available in next week’s paper.