Young Bobcats fall at Eureka

It was kind of a matter of picking your hardship for the young Superior Bobcats basketball team this past week.

A baptism under fire in the highly competitive world that is class B basketball in Western Montana.

These talented young Bobcats will reach the level of play they are seeking once the group of freshmen and sophomores get the experience the climb will require.

Learn and grow will happen.

But for now, the Cats will run into established local B powers that will offer a glimpse of where the Bobcats want to be.

That being said, this past week was not where Superior wants to be as the Bobcats dropped a road game to Eureka, 57-29, Friday night, then returned home and fell to Seeley-Swan 63-48 before a near full house of vocal fans.

To make the climb more difficult, the Cats were without the services of Landon Richards, their promising 6-5 freshman post who was not a factor in Friday’s game.

Without Richards presence under the basket in Eureka, one of top teams in the 7B conference was able to implement a game plan that allowed them to dominate the paint, which they did in the first quarter and throughout the game. After one quarter of play, the home standing Lions held a 16-10 lead. They outscored Superior 11-2 in the second quarter to build a 27-13 lead against the Cats, who as usual in this rebuilding season fought hard but could not overcome the early hole in which they found themselves.

Eureka, which had three players score in double figures during the game, went on to outscore Superior 30-17 in the second half.

Not even the bullseye shooting of freshman guard Gannon Quinlan could pull them out of the basketball quagmire in which they found themselves, allowing Eureka to boost its 7B record to 4-0 and its overall record to 8-2.

Quinlan scored a game-high 16 points for Superior, but it was not enough to offset the 13 points scored by Eureka’s Braden Casazza and the 11-points apiece contributed by Parker Bates and Caden Vaughn.

So, with another hard lesson learned notched in their belts, the Bobcats traveled back to the friendly confines of their gym in Superior Saturday evening where they opened with a 12-10 lead after one quarter of play.

However, Seeley roared back using its height, experience and deadly outside shooting to outscore the Cats 20-12 in the second quarter on their way to a hard-fought 30-24 halftime lead.

Blackhawks guards Nic Little Coyote and Blake Irwin rained three’s from all over the Superior hardwoods in the second half as Seeley pulled steadily away from the home boys en route to the 15-point victory.

Richrards was back in the lineup Saturday and pumped in 12 points to go with the team-best 18 from Quinlan. However, in the second half Quinlan went down with an ankle injury that momentarily hushed the big crowd. He was not able to return to the game, allowing the Blackhawks to lift their season record to 8-5.

Irwin led all scorers with 27 points and Little Coyote dropped 18 to lead the visitors.

The non-conference loss dropped the Bobcats to 3-9 on the year. The Bobcats return to 7B conference play this weekend when they host Plains Friday (Feb 2) night. The following night they take the long trip to Troy for a game with the Trojans.