The South Loup boys basketball season came to an unceremonious end Saturday morning, with the update of a website. As the Class D1 wildcards were assigned and the district finals were announced, the top four wildcards were drawn, but the Bobcats sat in fifth place.

The Bobcats (18-5) walked into a subdistrict stacked full of talent - four of the top 10 teams in the state were playing in this sub - and the potential for multiple wildcards to come from this sub was incredibly likely. North Platte St. Pat’s (1st), Maywood Hayes Center (2nd), Elm Creek (4th), and South Loup (9th) were all contenders for the title.

In the first round of subdistrict play last Monday, the Bobcats easily defeated Overton 67-43. The Eagles came out swinging - literally - with the first player fouling out in the first half of play. Despite their hot-headedness, they were no match for the height of Lance Jones, pulling down 7 rebounds and scoring 14 points, the speed of the Paulsen brothers - Kaden and Conner - who scored 4 points and 10 points respectively, and the polished teamwork of Cache Gracey and Trey Connell, who scored 15 points and 11 points. Connell also had 9 assists in the game.

On Tuesday, the Bobcats faced the St. Pat’s Irish in the semifinals and for the first three quarters, it looked like the Bobcats might knock off last year’s state champs. The first three quarters of this game was like watching a state tournament game, not a subdistrict. But, come the fourth quarter, the Bobcats seemed to run out of steam, and walked away with the loss, 52-69.

Smart defense by the Bobcats led to eight Irish turnovers in the first quarter alone, which created scoring opportunities for South Loup and a very tight first quarter score of 11-12.

The Bobcats kept the score close during the first part of the second quarter, but towards the end, the 3-pointers stopped dropping and the Irish were grabbing more rebounds than the Bobcats, which led to a deficit of 2432 by the end of the half.

A switch was flipped in the boys during halftime and they came out with a new vigor and excitement. The buckets dropped, the rebounds were plentiful, and the Bobcats pulled ahead of the Irish for the first time all game. Even though the lead kept changing back and forth, the third quarter ended with the Bobcats just trailing 39-40.

The fourth quarter was tough on the Bobcats. Whatever switch was flipped in the third quarter was unflipped in the final eight minutes of play. It seemed like whenever the Irish touched the ball, it did exactly as they wanted it to. A little less than half way through the fourth quarter, the Irish had pulled ahead of the Bobcats and never looked back.

The top scorers for the Bobcats were Connell with 20 points, including 9 points from 3-pointers; Cache Gracey with 17 points; and Conner Paulsen with 8 points. Jones pulled down 6 rebounds, and Gracey added another 5 rebounds.

The Bobcats will graduate three seniors this year - Silas Cool, Lance Jones and Kaden Paulsen.