Bobcats looking to gut out trials and tribulations of season

THERMOPLIS - The season has not gone as planned for the Hot Spring County High School boys basketball team. After fighting back from a 20-point deficit against Worland last Thursday night, before falling 67-56, the Bobcats looked to be turning the corner.

Friday night against the Buffalo Bison proved to be the opposite as the Bobcats fell 67-39.

"We put a lot of the energy in one of the games and had a setback in the other," said HSCHS boys basketball coach Kevin Gerber. "We're in that roller coaster right now and, like we have most this season, we played them close at the start but in the second quarter we scored only four points."

"Buffalo wasn't bigger than Worland but they did get up the court just as fast. It was disappointing to all of us in the locker room especially coming off our highest scoring performance of the season to then follow it up with our second lowest scoring game," said coach Gerber.

The Buffalo game was one of those games where everything goes wrong and coach Gerber believes next time they matchup against the Bison they'll see a different team.

"We were off. We had some good looks but couldn't get them to fall. It was one of those things that felt like all those things that went well for us against Worland worked against us against Buffalo. I know Buffalo didn't see the best of us, so when we travel there I think they're going to see a different team," said coach Gerber.

A silver lining in the loss to Buffalo was senior big Will DeVries, who scored eight points, pulled down nine rebounds and had five blocks in the loss.

"Will DeVries played really well and protected the rim with five blocks. Teams are starting to key on Noah (Schwable) and Hudson (Roling), so other guys are having to step up and we're seeing that with the Davis boys (Jaxon and Trey) and Will," said coach Gerber.

"It was a tough game for us to play and being in front of your home crowd you want to represent better but again I'd go to battle with these boys any day," said coach Gerber when talking about his overall thoughts about the game. "They're a strong group and we're battling through this tough stretch. We're at that point in the season where if you aren't putting together wins it gets frustrating. But we have to keep working through that and not letting the frustration break us."

Fighting through the season's adversities is always a tough obstacle for coaches to navigate. For coach Gerber he talked about his approach to tackling those hardships not only for the season but for life as well.

"While basketball is the focus when our players leave this program I want them to be good contributing young men to society. We've been using this as a lesson to tell them that adversity is always going to be there and you have to be able to handle it," said coach Gerber. "We were that team that didn't make it to regionals last season and that keeps hanging over their heads. So I have to keep reminding them that we make it to regionals no matter what. We just need to focus getting better and staying positive. We really focus on being energy givers and not energy takers."

Coach Gerber added, "Even when we were down against Buffalo we hit a 3-pointer with two minutes to go and everyone on the bench was up and cheering. That says a lot about their character and how they're able to still build each other up."

This week the Bobcats face Rawlins at home at 7 p.m. Friday night, and then hit the road Saturday in a matchup against No.2-ranked Douglas Bearcats at 2 p.m.

"Our stress this week in practice is going to be moving the ball faster and picking up our rebounding because it's not where it needs to be," said coach Gerber. "Douglas is right now the one team that many think will compete with Riverton. They could be overlooking us and that will be a good chance for us to play spoiler. Rawlins will be at home and they're going to be tough but I feel like that's going to be a good chance for us to have a good showing."