Bobcats Second-Half Rally Frustrates Skyline

The Madison Bobcats defeated the Skyline Grizzlies 60-42 on Wednesday night. This is Madison’s third straight win as they improved to a 4-2 record. Skyline, however, recorded their fourth straight loss. “I was super proud of our boys,” Madison’s Coach Schwab said.

The Bobcats started the game with a 14-9 lead at the end of the first quarter, but the Grizzlies outscored them in the second, to close the gap to 24-21 by halftime.

“Our boys came out and played really strong,” Schwab said, “but in the last four or five minutes of the first half they let up a bit on defense and let Skyline go on a 9-0 run to close out the half.” The coach also said that their defense had trouble switching in man defense, and this allowed a lot of open shots.

“We kind of challenged [our boys] at halftime,” Schwab said. “We told them to go out and show everybody who the real Madison team was.” Whatever wording he used, it worked, because the Bobcats came back onto the court with a vengeance.

Madison stretched their lead in the second half, outperforming the Skyline team 36-21. In the last two-and-a-half minutes, the Bobcats outscored the Grizzlies 13-4, completely blowing the game wide open. Many of the Skyline fans began to trickle out with about five minutes left to play, and only about a quarter of them remained at the end of the game.

While it may not have seemed like it at the end of the first half, Madison played a spectacular game for most of the matchup. “It’s tough to ask them to be the best team for 32 minutes, every game, night in-night out,” Schwab said. “You’re going to have some lulls here and there.” Despite the second quarter, Madison played a great game. They showed that they have the talent to play well throughout the season.

Skyline’s leading scorer was Jo Bates, who had 14 points. The Grizzlies didn’t have anybody else in double-digit figures. Madison had four players with ten or more points, with Spencer Hathaway and Brigham Williams leading the team at 17 and 16 points respectively. Twelve of Hathaway’s points came in the second half, and nine of those were in the third quarter. Jordan Porter also played a very strong second half, with all ten of his points in the second half, and seven in the fourth quarter. Joe Dougherty had eleven, and seven of those were in the second quarter. Williams had many of his scores come in the first quarter, dropping seven points. Effectively, Madison had a different dominant scorer for each of the four quarters.

The Madison Junior Varsity boys’ basketball team won their game against Skyline as well with a score of 48-44.