Stepping up to the competition

Superior Lady Bobcat basketball Head Coach Jeff Schultz rarely schedules summer league games against Class C. The result is his squad playing larger schools and tougher competition, which strengthens his team going into the regular season.

On the rare occasion Coach Schultz does schedule games against Class C opponents they are against the traditional powerhouses. Tuesday night was one of those occasions and the Bobcats faced off against Charlo and Arlee in back-to-back games.

In the first game of the night against Charlo, Superior found themselves in an all out defensive battle.

“They (Charlo) play extremely good man defense and we struggled to score against it,” Coach Schultz said. “But our defense was equally as impressive.”

Although both teams defenses were the stars of the show and the game was ultimately a low scoring contest, Coach Schultz did mention the offensive efforts of two of his players.

“Anesa Ruiz came up with some big rebounds,” Coach Schultz said. “Marissa Koke was our leading scorer.”

In a hard fought match the Lady Cats came out on top, edging out Charlo 18-17

The second game of the night saw Superior firing on all cylinders against Arlee.

“We came out strong,” Coach Schultz said. “The pressed us and we handled it very well – breaking the press and scoring on fast breaks.”

Arlee showed why they are consistently ranked high in Class C basketball and came out strong in the second half, firing back against the five-point lead of Superior. The score went back and forth and in the final seconds of the game the Bobcats found themselves down.

“With 10-seconds left we were down by two and Jordan Mueller went to the rim and finished a left handed shot through two Arlee girls,” Coach Schultz said.

The tough play sent the game into overtime and according to Coach Schutlz his squad got “really aggressive” and ended up winning the game 38-35.