On Feb. 6, the South Loup Bobcats traveled to Merna to play the Anselmo-Merna Coyotes in a conference matchup.

The Bobcats started off the game very quickly and flustered the Coyotes with great defense. The full-court pressure by the Bobcats gave them a double-digit lead at the end of the first quarter.

The second quarter would bring continued struggles for the Coyotes as they continued to have trouble getting on the scoreboard. With just seconds left in the second quarter, the Bobcats found themselves up by a big margin, while holding the Coyotes to just 7 points. In the final moments of the first half, a Coyotes bench player would hit a 3-point shot to boost them into double digits in an attempt to give them some momentum going into the second half.

The Bobcats came out of halftime flying around on the defensive side of the ball once again. Continually getting steals which led to points, the Bobcats started to pull away from the Coyotes. Though the Coyotes did a much better job scoring in the second half, they would fall to the Bobcats, 65-31.

Cache Gracey led the scoring for the Bobcats with 18, followed by Trey Connell and Crew Witthuhn with 14 points each.

South Loup hosted the Hi-Line Bulls on Friday, Feb. 9, in the second to last regular season game of the year. Closing the year out, both teams were eager to get a win.

The beginning of the game was all Bobcats as their full-court pressure was able to create easy buckets for them as it has all year long. The Bulls would also get into foul

Left: Senior Joey Sallach gets his shot off against a quick Hi-Line defense in the Bobcats 59-43 win over the Bulls. (Courier photo by Leta Connell) trouble and have to go to their bench early. South Loup took full advantage of this and continued their run.

The Bulls began to wake up in the second quarter. Finding ways to break the press, they were able to keep the game within reach despite the great execution from the Bobcats. The Bulls capitalized on a few of the mistakes that the Bobcats made at the end of the first half, but not before the Bobcats were able to gain a 17-point lead going into the break.

The halftime break ended and both teams came out with a little less aggression. Both teams struggled to compound defensive stops and would trade scores back and forth. The lead that the Bobcats created in the first half would prove to be the difference in the game as the teams traded blows. The evenly played second half would result in a Bobcat win, 59-43.

Gracey had the hot hand of the night, scoring 37 of South Loup’s 59 points. He was the only Bobcat player in double digits. Rio Remund was big on the boards for the Bobcats pulling down 8 rebounds.

The regular season wraps up for the Bobcats on Friday when they travel to SEM. Tip-off for the varsity game is set for 6 p.m.