Bobcats bested by Valley Christian

Back from Christmas break, the Superior boys had a rough game against Valley Christian coming back into the season after a week of practice.

The first half of the game was pretty even for the two teams and Superior didn’t find themselves too far behind at halftime. They ended the first quarter only four points behind, 5-9.

During the last two minutes of the second quarter, the boys quickly had to tally up some points to put themselves back in the game. With a 1:50 left, they were down, 11-21. It was crucial for the players to make their free throws from the foul line.

Billy Smith added one point with a free throw and Clint Voll chipped in two with a good shot. Voll then added a couple of points from the foul line as well. RJ Frederick added two more points in free throws with eight seconds left on the clock. They went into halftime down by only a few, 19-22. The game was still within their reach. But the second half was a struggle.

“We knew going in that our defense was going to have to step up and shut down their shooters because they have a couple of real good ones,” Coach Bajin Smith said. “And we tried to stay with them in through the first half and in the second half, they did a jump trap defense and we turned the ball over. Our defense was a little tired and running out of steam in the second half. They were picking away at us. It was a disappointing loss.”

In the third quarter, Superior was outscored by Valley, 8-17, and then in the fourth, 5-19. They ended up losing 29-58.

The points were spread pretty evenly across the players. Billy Smith scored three, RJ Frederick added four, Adam Kay led with seven, Clint Voll nabbed five, Ryan Bowers chipped in three, Aaron Lowman scored five and Tanner Coon added two.

After Valley, Smith said that they made some adjustments before heading up to Deer Lodge on Saturday.

“I felt like it was a good game,” Smith said. “We did good in the first half and even in the second. I thought we played a strong defense and tightened up a few things on offense.”

Superior did play well against Deer Lodge. They were outscored in the first quarter, 10-15, but matched up evenly in the second, 14-14. Going into halftime, the Bobcats weren’t far behind their opponents, 24-29. The third quarter was where Deer Lodge did most of the damage, outscoring the boys 16-7. But they played a strong fourth and outscored Deer Lodge, 10-8. The final score ended up being 53-41.

“One weakness that showed up is we had some trouble on the boards, had a hard time rebounding,” Smith said. “But it wasn’t a bad game.”

Frederick had a huge game. He scored 22 points for the team.

Smith said that coming back after a week of practice they know that they struggled against Valley, but overall he believes they are ahead of where they had hoped to be.

“We got some good kids that have stepped up to be leaders and some of them are younger kids,” Smith said. “We’re down to our core group of about 14 kids and they’re looking real promising, hoping to peak at districts.”

Before districts, the boys have another tough week coming up. They play Alberton on Tuesday at home and will head up to Loyola on Thursday.