Jonas Emilsson
www.KramMag.com

A great start, a so-so middle, and a strong finish ended up being the recipe that cooked up a tough 86-81 victory for the Bishop O’Byrne Bobcats (3-0) over the Henry Wise Wood Warriors (2-2).

Owen Son, Jordan Tomiyama and Ben Pilley each chipped in with 15 points for the Bobcats.

Warriors sharp-shooter Payton Karch put up an impressive 36 points for the Warriors to lead all scorers.

Tomiyama scored 10 points in the fourth quarter, four of which came courtesy of clutch late-game free-throws to help the Bobcats join the Bishop Grandin Ghosts atop the South division.

More photos from this game will soon be available HERE.

“It was an awesome game,” Bobcats’ head coach Kurt Luttmerding said. “We thought that we wore them down and that was the difference. We subbed lots so everyone was fresh, both teams were a little bit tired, but their super star (Karch) was a little bit more tired.

The Bobcats jumped out to an early 16-4 lead, forcing the Warriors to call a timeout to settle things down before the score got completely out of hand.

After the timeout, it was clear what the Warriors’ coaching staff wanted the players to do – pick up the pace and start shooting the ball.

Shoot the ball often is exactly what the Warriors did, and strangely enough, the strategy worked as they managed to close the gap to 22-16 by the time the opening quarter came to an end.

The Warriors continued to chip away at the Bobcats’ lead and eventually pushed ahead 26-24 on a bucket by Karch with six minutes to play in the second quarter.

But the Warriors were unable to ride the momentum far enough to gain a substantial lead. Instead the two teams settled for trading buckets with each other until halftime, where the Warriors held a slight 36-33 lead.

“We’ve come into this building the last three years and lost so it meant a lot for us to get off to a good start,” said Luttmerding. “They made a run like I knew they would, but I’m really proud of our guys because they showed a lot of mental toughness.”

That mental toughness was especially evident in the fourth quarter with the Warriors pushing hard on their home court, wanting desperately to get a big win over a tough opponent before the three-week exam breaks begins.

But they couldn’t muster enough energy to pull away from the Bobcats, who had been rolling their lines throughout the game to keep players in good shape.

The fresh legs helped the Bobcats with a late fourth-quarter offensive push, as well as the ability to finally put a stop to Karch, who had pretty much scored at will up until that point.

“We tired them out in the first three quarters and then we just took it to them in the fourth,” Tomiyama said. “We got off to a good start, but the we kind of fell behind for a bit, but our bench came up really big so it ended up good.”

Along with Tomiyama’s steady late-game leadership and point production, forward Trevor Hofbauer scored nine of his 11 points in the final quarter to help seal the victory.