The Bobcats traveled to Walker Co on Friday to face the region leading LaFayette Ramblers. With Gilmer sitting in the second spot, the Cats were looking to play hard and earn a win over a talented basketball team.
It was a long night for the Bobcats starting at the opening tip-off and continuing throughout the competition. The Ramblers dominated both in the scoring and in rebounds on the night with Gilmer fighting to get shots to fall. The Bobcats scraped together 9 points in the first period on shots by Carter Hice, Coady Cobb, Tripp Pierce, and Kell Weaver. As the first came to a close, Gilmer found themselves down by 14 points at 23-9. LaFayette’s Alex Kelehear scored 9 and teammate Dee Southern had 9 as well in the period. The opening of the second period saw the continuation of Rambler domination. Everything seemed to go against the Bobcats with turnovers and shots missing there mark. LaFayette added 17 points to the board during the period while the Cats scored 10 for 40-19 deficit heading into halftime. Nothing was working for Gilmer and the frustrations showed as they entered the locker room. Completing the first half scoring for the Bobcats was Hice(2), David Smith(2), Coady Cobb(3), TrippPeirce(4), Braden Jenkins(4), and Kell Weaver with 4.
Coming out of the locker room, Coach Hice and his team fought tooth and claw to figure a way to stop the Ramblers and get back into the game. It wasn’t meant to happen on this day as LaFayette continued to control every aspect of the game on their home court. The third period saw an offensive output of 24 points by the Ramblers while keeping the points to a minimum for Gilmer. The Cats were held to 8 points by Weaver, Jenkins, Cobb, and Smith who trailed the home team 64-27 as the period came to a close and headed into the final period of play. LaFayette gave the Cats a little reprieve in the fourth by inserting their younger players. The Bobcats scored 12 points while allowing the young Ramblers 4 points. The efforts by the Bobcats were valiant but in the end were not enough. The 68-39 region loss to the Ramblers keeps the Cats sitting in second place in 6-AAAA with 2 games left in the season. A non-region match-up with the Lumpkin County Indians on Saturday and in the final game, also a region game, the Bobcats will travel to Northwest Whitfield on Tuesday.