The South Loup boys’ basketball season ended much sooner than anyone had hoped on Feb. 22 when the Bobcats lost to No. 1 seed North Platte St. Pats.

The 72-27 loss ends South Loup’s season with a 10-12 record and coach Jeff Cole said if there were just a couple of things that had gone a bit differently, the game would have been a stark contrast to that final score.

“We missed a lot of free throws and shots around the basket that we normally make,” he said. “We missed 17 shots at the rim and it seemed like everything they put up went in, especially in the fourth.”

Cole continued to say that if the Bobcats had been able to get even 20-30 points out of those misses, things would have looked a whole lot different.

Despite the final score, Cole was happy with the effort of his team.

“I was happy that the boys never quit and kept fighting,” he said. “But things seemed to snowball late in the game when a bit of frustration set in.”

Colbi Smith is the lone senior for the Bobcats this season and Cole said that he will leave some big shoes to fill.

“I’m proud of the hard work and time Colbi has put into the program the past four years,” he said. “He was a constant at all of our summer league games and camps throughout the years.”

With the loss of only one player to graduation, the future of the Bobcats basketball team is bright and Cole said this season laid a great foundation for years to come.

“I am most excited about the fact that we had a young team this year that got better through the season,” he said. “I think as the boys look back on their season, they will be very pleased with the strides they have made.”

Cole continued to say that while the season did not end the way his club wanted it to, he hoped they keep the entire season in perspective.

“A play here or there, and they could have easily been a 15-win team instead of a 10-win team,” he said. “They gave themselves an opportunity to win in all but three of our games, we just weren’t able to pull them out.”

In thinking of the year and how much his team has improved, Cole said there were two specific games he would mark as pivotal in the growth of his team and were ranked amongst his favorite memories with this 2021-22 club.

The first, he said, was avenging an early-season loss to Sandhills Valley in the Conference Tournament.

“And pulling out a hard-fought game against Hi-Line after being down 29-4 in the first quarter,” he said. “It would have been easy for the boys to call it a night, but there was no quit in our team and they kept battling and pulled it out in overtime.”

Congratulations to the South Loup boys’ basketball team on a tremendous season of growth.