South Loup began their sub-district basketball tournament on Tuesday, Feb. 20, with their first-round game against the Sandhills-Valley Mavericks in Ansley. The Bobcats have played the Mavericks twice this year already, looking to repeat the two victories with another.

The beginning of the game would show this intention to be true as the Bobcats jumped on the Mavericks with a 17-6 lead after the first quarter.

Though the Mavericks would get going on defense, holding the Bobcats to 10 second-quarter points, they would really struggle on offense. The defensive pressure of the Bobcats would get the Mavericks on the ropes after winning the second quarter 10-2.

The second half would be much more evenly matched. The Bobcats would win the third quarter by just four after a scoring total of 14-10. The Mavericks would then go on to flip the script against the Bobcats in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Bobcats 21-12 to give them a little bit of a scare. The late rally wouldn't be enough though, as the Bobcats would come out with a 14-point win, 39-53.

Trey Connell and Cache Gracey led the Bobcats, each scoring 14 points against the Mavericks. Joey Sallach was once again solid on defense, pulling down 9 rebounds.

The win propelled the Bobcats to then play the home team Ansley-Litchfield Spartans on Feb. 22. The Spartans coming in as the number one seed and the Bobcats coming in as the second made for conversation of a great game to come.

The Bobcats wanting to play fast, and the Spartans wanting to play slow, made for the biggest “if” in the game being the pace at which it would be played. The Spartans would jump out to a quick lead of 8-5 after the first quarter.

The second quarter would feature much more scoring, but would still favor the Spartans by eight. The halftime break sent the Bobcats into discussion on how to play from behind while trailing 13-24.

The second half would be much closer with the Bobcats only losing the third quarter by two, and the fourth quarter by five. Though taking a loss in the final round of Sub-Districts, the Bobcats got a wild card which enabled them to play at home against the Plainview Pirates on Tuesday, Feb. 27. Results of that game were not available at press time.

The Bobcats struggled offensively against the Spartans, with Connell leading the way with 8 points. Sallach and Crew Witthuhn each contributed 4. Witthun also added 4 rebounds, as did Conner Paulsen.