The Gilmer High School Bobcats were unable to replicate the success of their female counterparts last Friday at Heritage, as the varsity fell 70-35 and the JV dropped a 58-42 contest to the Generals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the varsity game, Heritage jumped out early and never looked back. After leading 24-2 at the end of the first quarter, the Generals had opened up a 39-8 lead at the break. Gilmer started churning out offense in the second half, but the deficit was too large to outcome. Heritage led 57-21 after three quarters, before going on to take the 70-35 victory.

“We’ve got to make sure that we take care of what we can do,” said Gilmer coach Brad Jenkins, who was filling in for head coach Jordan Hice. “They (Heritage) shot the ball and passed the ball really good. In the first half, our guys just didn’t put any points on the board. I don’t care what the situation is, we’ve got to try and put points on the board, move the ball and find the open shots. Plus, we had a hard time defensively. We tried to play man-to-man and we didn’t match up well in some situations. But when we put in our zone (defense), they had some guys that were shooting the ball well too. We’ve got to do a better job of getting the job done on both ends of the floor.”

The JV contest was a shootout from the outset. Heritage came out of the first-quarter slugfest with a 17-11 lead, before Gilmer surged back in the second. Down 26-14 with less than three minutes remaining before halftime, the Bobcats went on an 11-0 run to leave the Generals with a 26-25 halftime advantage.

A three-point shot from Tyler Sims put the Cats ahead 30-28 with 4:55 left in the third quarter, giving Gilmer its first lead of the game in the process. Heritage responded with a 10-0 run to regain and build a lead that the Bobcats were unable to overcome. After leading 43-32 at the end of the third, the Generals went on to claim the 58-42 victory.

“We didn’t play well to start with, but we picked it up on defense,” Jenkins pointed out. “That really turned things around and we got back into it. We hoped to build off of it coming out of the half, but we went through a little scoring drought in the third quarter. We never could make a run and make those points up. We’ve just got to keep the offense going.”

STATS (Bobcats):

Isaac Hensley: 11 points, 0/1 on free throws.

Riley Hice: Eight points, one rebound.

Jake Ray: Six points, four rebounds.

Josh White: Three points, one steal, 0/2 on free throws.

Hunter Johnson: Three points, one rebound.

Chandler Cantrell: Two points, three rebound.

Cole Edmondson: Two points, one steal.

Samuel McArthur: One steal.

STATS (JV Bobcats):

Kell Weaver: 12 points, seven rebounds, one steal, 2/3 on free throws.

Noah Chastain: 12 points, one rebound, one steal, 4/4 on free throws.

Tyler Sims: Eight points, six rebounds, two steals, 1/2 on free throws.

Dillan Ledford: Five points, four rebounds, two steals, 3/6 on free throws.

Tripp Pierce: Three points, two rebounds.

Austin Daman: Two points, two rebounds, 2/2 on free throws.

Parker Benitez: One rebound.

Colin Pflueger: One rebound.