BROOKINGS The Brookings Bobcats hung with Brandon Valley for most of the first half but the Lynx made their move in the second half to hand Brookings a 70-48 loss at Bob Jostad Gymnasium on Friday night.
The loss was the Bobcats fifth in their first six games of the season and continued a learning curve that Brookings has faced all year.
Were just learning what it takes to compete every night, Brookings head coach Mike McCarty said. Every team thats on our schedule has quality players and quality depth. Theyre all well coached and just night-in and night-out, were understanding what it takes on both ends of the court.
The Bobcats showed signs of putting it together throughout the first half battling back after Brandon Valley scored the first six points of the game. Austin Clark was a catalyst for Brookings as he scored 12 of his 15 points in the first half including a perfect 7-for-7 from the free throw line.
Austins a really good shooter and scorer, McCarty said of the senior. Getting to the foul line is a way that he can get going and he made a couple of 3-pointers for us. Hes our leading scorer and a guy that we rely on to score for us every night.
With Clark leading the way, the Bobcats trailed 18-13 at the end of the first quarter and used a 13-10 advantage in the second quarter to trail 28-26 at the half.
While Brookings was able to hang around in the first half, they lost their shot in the second half, going 4-for-19 (21.1%) from the floor. The cold shooting allowed the Lynx to break the game open with an 11-3 run to take a 48-39 lead at the end of the third quarter and out-score the Bobcats 22-9 in the fourth quarter to preserve the victory.
I think we just didnt execute our offense as well as we could have, McCarty said of the second half. We got some open shots but we just didnt convert on them and we had a couple of turnovers that they got easy buckets out of. We knew that they would do several things defensively and we just didnt execute well enough.
Despite the loss, McCarty was encouraged by the performance of his players including Keech Bior. The senior recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds with a pair of blocks on the night and formed a presence in the post complemented by Owen Burns, who had eight points, five rebounds, two assists with a block and a steal.
Josh Olthoff led the way for Brandon Valley with 17 points, five rebounds, three assists, a block and a steal and Aiden Zerr had 13 points, four rebounds and two assists in the win. Mayen Mach added nine points, four rebounds, two assists and a steal for the Lynx while Brady Wells had eight points, six rebounds and two assists.
Brookings shot 28 percent for the game including 6-for-22 (27.3) on 3-pointers. The Bobcats made 18-of-20 (90%) free throws and turned the ball over 13 times.
Brandon Valley shot 48 percent from the floor including 57 percent in the second half. The Lynx also went 8-for-20 (40%) on 3-pointers and made 12-of-16 (75%) of their free throws. Brandon Valley also committed nine turnovers and outrebounded Brookings 34-29.
The Bobcats’ tough stretch will continue next week when they host second-ranked Mitchell on Friday night but McCarty and his team are embracing the challenge as they head through the first half of the season.
We know what we need to do to execute offensively and the things we need to do on the defensive end to take away some of our opponents best options, McCarty said. Thats not easy in [Class] AA basketball. Theres a lot of very good teams and were finding that out every night.
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