Rich Hill vs Drexel
On Friday night the Rich Hill Tigers returned home to face the Drexel Bobcats for a WEMO Conference game. This would be the first meeting of these two team in the 2019-2020 season. Earlier in the week at the 1A district seeding meeting the Bobcats had received the number one seed followed by the Tigers who got the number two seed. The Tigers were coming in the game after a disappointing second half at Liberal and hope to get back on the right track.
The JV boys started off the evening with a half game. The Drexel players came out hitting a couple of quick treys as the Tigers offensive struggled to get going and trailed 5-11. Rich Hill came out strong to start the second quarter to close the gap but Drexel got on a hot streak and the Tigers were not able to recover dropping the to the Bobcats 13-27. Scoring for the Tigers were Blake Laning 7, Lucas Harwood 5, and Daylen Walton with 1.
Before the varsity game started the Seniors were honored. The 2019-2020 Tigers had two seniors, Sage Bolser #5 and Brady Querry #31.
The Varsity boys came out with high energy against a talented Bobcat team. The Tigers offensively got off to a good start and defensively were able to contain Drexel to 10 points for the quarter. Rich Hill led 15-10 after the first quarter. In the second quarter the Tigers tightened up their defense and the offense keep pace with their first quarter output and led at the half, Rich Hill 29 Drexel 18. Better rebounding and limiting the number of turnovers compared to the Liberal game helped the Tigers build their lead. The second half saw the Bobcats make a run at the Tigers but after a well-timed timeout, Rich Hill regained their composure and ground out a one point advantage for the quarter which saw Rich Hill holding a 41-29 lead. The fourth quarter saw both teams holding their ground with neither able to really shake the other. In the end the Tigers only outscored the Bobcats by three points in the second half but a good first half gave Rich Hill enough breathing room to come out with a 56-42 victory for the evening. The Tigers improved their season record to 10-13 overall and 4-3 in the WEMO conference. The Tigers will play their last regular season home game on next Tuesday night against the Lakeland Vikings. They will finish the season on the road at Appleton City on Friday night before they start district play. The district tournament will be played at Rich Hill High School on Monday February 24th starting with the boys.
Scoring for the Tigers against the Bobcats, Sage Bolser with 20, Clifton Bridgewater 16, Brady Querry 12, Lucas Harwood 6 and Bryce Yohe 2