Bobcats blast Kernels, 70-44, in ESD matchup

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BROOKINGS – It’s tough to knock off a good team when that team has four players that score in double digits.

That was the final scenario on Tuesday night at Bob Jostad Gymnasium in Brookings as the Bobcats beat Mitchell, 70-44, in Eastern South Dakota Conference boys’ basketball.

The 26-point final margin was somewhat misleading as the Kernels trailed by just five points after the first eight minutes, but then fell behind by 14 at 38-24 heading into halftime.

“Offensively, we really got into a good flow tonight,” said Brookings head coach Travis Engebretson. “Four guys in double figures – we shared the ball – it’s fun basketball; it’s fun to coach when you have guys that share the basketball; we just snapped the ball around and it seemed like we had a lot of good open looks.

“Defensively, didn’t defend the ball screen very well, so obviously, have to work on that a little bit, but overall, pleased with the effort and glad the kids bounced back with a really tough loss on Saturday.”

Mitchell was still within 13 points three minutes into the third before the Bobcats went on a 12-0 run – on four 3-pointers by four different players – to take a 55-30 lead with a minute left in the third.

Josh Mohs knocked down the first trey on a second-chance try as Carter Holm pulled down an offensive rebound. Two-and-a-half minutes later, Devin Coughlin drilled a 3 from the corner and then on the next Bobcat possession, Drew Cole buried it from the left wing after Brennan Carlson rebounded his own miss. Sam Wilber capped off the run with 1:01 to play with the fourth 3-pointer as the Bobcat lead ballooned to 25 points on the way to a 56-35 edge after three quarters.

Connor Morgan scored the first four points in the fourth to help the Mitchell get within 17 at 56-39, but Holm answered with two straight baskets for the Bobcats and the Kernels never got closer than 19 the rest of the way as they fell to 0-8 overall and 0-5 in the ESD.

Holm finished with 18 points for the Bobcats, who improved to 5-1 on the season and in conference play. Mohs added 16 points, eight boards and four assists; Carlson contributed 12 points, nine rebounds and three steals; Coughlin netted 10 points to go along with four dimes; and Wilber chipped in with six markers.

“I definitely thought we were going to get the wins,” said Carlson of the Bobcats being 5-1 at this point of the season. “We’ve played really, really well – that’s something that we’ve always been able to do playing together growing up.

“We have five, six, seven really good scorers and if we get the ball moving, we should get those guys buckets. No one is going to get a volume of shots, but everyone is going to get their chance and they should be able to hit those because they’re open.”

Morgan led the Kernels with 25 points as he knocked down 8-of-16 shots from the field, including a 5-of-8 effort from beyond the arc. Cody Reichelt added six points and six rebounds while Vincent Michael chipped in with five second-half points.

Brookings heads to Brandon Valley on Friday for an ESD game at 7 p.m.