T-cats split weekend games

Now well into the second half of the season, the Tigercats battled in rematches against Rosalia and Garfield-Palouse over the weekend, before facing Touchet on Tuesday. The Tigercats enjoyed victory over Rosalia, but fell to the league’s top ranked team, Garfield-Palouse, on Saturday. The Tigercats continued on to play Touchet and earned a league win in overtime.

The Tigercats traveled to Rosalia, and taking the on the road win from the team who had defeated the Tigercats earlier this season helped make the victory a little sweeter. The LWK team secured the league win after a tough fought battle, with a final score of 61-57.

Head coach Mike Stubbs said the team approached the game with the same philosophy as the first match up: contain Craig Nelson. While the philosophy stayed the same, the strategy changed as Darcy Stamper played containment defense on Nelson.

Two early fouls on Stamper put the LWK team into an unexpected situation. As the team rotated defenders, Nelson was able to put up the majority of his points in the first half. The Tigercats went into the locker room trailing by seven, but Stubbs said the team was optimistic and ready to make adjustments to control the second half tempo.

Throughout the season, the Tigercats have relied heavily on their defensive strength to win games and Friday night’s win was greatly attributed to the continued success on the defensive end of the court. Leading the defensive effort was Stamper, Stephen Erickson and Bo Rice, who worked to contain the Spartan’s leading scorers and limit Rosalia’s points.

After Stamper’s early game fouls, Erickson took the helm against Nelson and Stubbs said the team relied on Rice in the post position defensively to stop drives to the basket. Between Erickson’s quickness and Rice’s physicality, Stubbs said the team was able to control Nelson in the second half.

The Tigercats outscored the Spartans 16-8 in the third quarter, leaving the two teams in a back-and-forth battle for the win in the fourth quarter. A 15-foot jump shot by Riley Roberts in the final minute of the game and converted free throw points from Stamper secured the league win for the Tigercats. Stamper shot 12-15 from the line, while the team went 14 for 20.

Stamper led the Tigercats in scoring and shot a season-high of 36 points. Roberts had 12 points and Erickson added nine. Cole Evans scored two points, while Graham BeDell and Chance Rice each sank one free throw.

Saturday night the Tigercats hosted Garfield-Palouse and suffered a 65-39 loss to the Vikings. Stubbs said after facing a hard loss to GP earlier in the season, the team made sure they were mentally prepared for the Vikings.

“We were pretty competitive with them in the first quarter, but it was a case of Gar-Pal is deeper,” Stubbs said.

“There’s a reason why they’re number one in the league,” Stubbs added.

Stubbs said the well-coached team has many strong athletes who excel everywhere on the court, and the Tigercats worked to control the Vikings. The Vikings held LWK to single digit scoring in the first three quarters of the game, preventing the Tigercats to close the scoring gap, even when LWK battled back in the second half.

“They are very adept at taking the ball away from you in the open court as you’re trying to get away from them. They created some turnovers on us in the second,” Stubbs said.

“I’m proud of my boys for not getting down on themselves and playing to the very end,” Stubbs added.

Stubbs said the Vikings kept the Tigercats off balance offensively by running a variety of defenses throughout the course of the game. Stubbs said GP’s quick hands and overall exceptional defense created unwanted turnovers for the Tigercats.

With the expertise of the Vikings’ defenders, Stubbs said the team also had a hard time feeding the ball to Roberts down low. Roberts excels at rebounding on both ends of the court, but Stubbs said his put-back points were limited by GP rebounding well on defense.

Stamper led the Tigercats’ scoring drive with 16 points. Roberts ended the night with five. Chance Rice, Bo Rice, Jason Wigen and Brandon Bennett all added four points each. BeDell put up two points.

Touchet proved to be a tough match up on Tuesday night when the Tigercats rushed out to an early lead, but a strong second half effort from the Indians closed the gap and left the teams tied at the final buzzer. The Tigercats outscored Touchet 6-to-8 in overtime, and secured the league win, 54-52.

Free throws proved to be crucial as the Tigercats went 20 for 25 from the line in the game, and scored six from the line in overtime.

Stamper led the scoring drive with 17 points, followed by Riley Roberts with 16. Erickson added 10, and BeDell had four. Bo Rice had three, and Chance Rice and Wigen each added two.