The Lamar Cardinals came to Strahan Coliseum Saturday night and snapped a three game losing streak beating the Bobcats 71-65. The loss pushes the Bobcats losing streak to four games and their second straight loss at home. It was a hard fought battle but the Cats came up on the short side once again.
The Bobcats opened up the game with an 8-4 lead with two three point baskets; the first by John Rybak and the second by John Bowman. Things quickly started to turn from there. The Cardinals went on a 10-4 run to push the score to 18-12 and never looked back. The Bobcats lost the lead with 16:23 left in the first half and never regained it.
After gaining a 15 point lead, the Bobcats went on a 5-0 run off of two baskets by Cameron Johnson to end the first half down 38-28. It was the Bobcats shooting woes and defense that kept them from closing the gap more. They shot 31 percent from the field in the first half and 40 percent from the free throw line while allowing the Cardinals to shoot 53 percent from the field and 50 percent from beyond the arc.
Opening up the second half with a Corey Jefferson jumper, the Bobcats began to inch closer in to the Cardinals lead. There were three stretches of basketball where no team scored for two to three minutes at a time. During these stretches the Bobcats continued to miss free throws, but managed to chop down the lead from 10 points to 5 with 3:17 remaining in the game. The score stood a 62-57 after a layup by John Bowman.
The Cardinals brought the lead back out to 8 points after a made free throw and a lay up by Kenny Dawkins, with 1:02 left, and the Bobcats looked to be out of the game but never gave up the fight. Brent Benson made it to the line for his first free throws of the night and made both. The Bobcats stole the ensuing in-bound pass and a John Rybak jumper got the Cats back into the game down four points with :36 left.
After the Cardinals’ Jay Brown missed both of his free throws, Brandon Bush missed his three point attempt that would have made it a one point game. The Cardinals made their last four free throws of the game to close out the Cats.
Johnson did all he could to keep the Bobcats close scoring 19 points and pulling down 13 rebounds, but it wasn’t enough. Rybak chipped in 13 points and Bush grabbed 10 rebounds. On the other side, Brown had 16 points and 10 rebounds while Brandon McThay added 14 points and Ashton Hill put up 13 points to assist the Cardinals. The Bobcats won most facets of the ball game leading in rebounding, assist and steals while giving up six fewer turnovers than the Cardinals. The game defining difference was in shooting percentage. For the game the Bobcats shot 35 percent from the field, 21 percent from three point land and 52 percent from the line. The Cardinals made 49 percent of their shots and made eight more free throws than the Cats. With 52 fouls called during the game the Cats continue their fight with the officials. Three starters played substantial minutes with four fouls with Rybak fouling out with :04 remaining.
The Lamar Cardinals improve to 11-7 on the year and to 2-3 in conference play. The Bobcats fall to 8-10 on the season and 1-4 in conference. The Bobcats try to snap the losing streak next week in the I-35 rivalry against UTSA in San Antonio. The game tips off at 7:00 pm and you can listen in on 89.9 KTSW.
Dalton Sweat- KTSW Sports Staff Writer
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