T-cats split games at Dayton Tournament

The Tigercats competed in the annual Dayton Tournament last Friday and Saturday, and returned home with one win and one loss. The Tigercats faced the home team, Dayton, on Friday night before moving on in the bracket to match up again Wahkiakum on Saturday.

The LWK Tigercats pushed the Dayton match up into over time on Friday night and after trailing for the majority of the game, the Tigercats took a 54-50 win over Dayton. Head coach Mike Stubbs said the team trailed the entire game by single digit margins, but finally took the lead with only 17 seconds remaining in the game before Dayton hit a free throw to tie the game.

The Tigercats battled in the first half to keep Dayton in their sights and ended the first quarter trailing by one, 12-11, and went into the locker room at halftime trailing 26-23. After making minor adjustments at halftime, the Tigercats battled in the second half and ended both quarters tied with Dayton, sending the Tigercats into overtime.

“I’m really proud of my guys for hanging in there,” Stubbs said about the Dayton game. “They could’ve hung their heads and let it get away from them, but they didn’t.”

Stubbs explained the match up was exactly what they expected to see from Dayton: low scoring, physical and a constant battle.

“They didn’t have the length to match up with us, but it was their physicality that was the equalizer to our height,” Stubbs said.

Stubbs continued to say the Tigercats made slight changes in strategy in overtime and those changes proved to be the difference of the game. The emphasis in overtime moved to getting the ball down low and getting to the free throw line, Stubbs said.

“I felt confident if we could do that, and get to the line, we could win the game,” Stubbs said.

The Tigercats also switched into a man-to-man defense after staying in a zone defense during regular play.

The changes proved to be successful, and the Tigercats put up six points to Dayton’s two points in overtime.

Darcy Stamper led the Tigercats in scoring with 23 points, closely followed by Joey Guske who contributed 19. Riley Roberts had eight points, and Brandon Bennett and Chance Rice each had two points.

On Saturday night, the Tigercats returned to the hardwood to face a tough Wahkiakum team and the Tigercats struggled to match Wahkiakum’s talent as they secured an 88-53 win over the Tigercats.

Stubbs stated that overall; it was simply not the Tigercats best played game. The team struggled to keep pace with Wahkiakum with heavy legs and slow reaction time, and had a hard time getting the ball to fall.

“Wahkiakum is a very well coached, well drilled basketball team,” Stubbs said. “It appeared to me that those boys out there had played together a tremendous amount.”

“We picked a really poor time to have a very poor game against a very high quality opponent,” Stubbs stated.

With the Tigercats shooting percentage down tremendously, Wahkiakum maintained a substantial lead throughout the game. Stubbs said the Wahkiakum team worked on exposing the Tigercats weaknesses throughout the game and the team struggled to be mentally ready.

Stubbs said while the loss was hard for the team, the Tigercats are focusing on learning from both games played in Dayton.

“It’s a learning process, it’s a maturing process,” Stubbs said.

Stubbs explained Friday night the team learned by sticking with it and remaining competitive until the final second, the team can win basketball games, while Saturday showed the team they needed to be prepared mentally before every match up.

“You have to focus and be absolutely sure you are mentally ready when you put on that uniform to go out and play,” Stubbs said he told the team. “It’s a case of understanding the responsibility that you have when you put on that uniform.”

Stamper continued to be the team’s leading scorer with 20 points. Bennet and Cole Evans each had five points. Chance Rice had four points, and Guske, Bo Rice and Roberts had three each. Jason Wigen ended the night with two points.

The Tigercats return to league competition on Friday when the team faces Rosalia in LaCrosse, with tipoff at 7:30 p.m.

Stubbs expects the game to be a physical contest against a very tough opponent.