The Gilmer Bobcats maintained their third place spot in the standing with two region games remaining.
The Bobcats secured a pair of region road victories last week over the Dawson County Tigers and East Forsyth Broncos. Dawson was up first Tuesday, and GHS won 58-53 ahead of Friday’s triumph over East Forsyth, 72-61.
Gilmer made 1/9 three-point attempts versus Dawson. The Bobcats made up for their perimeter game by scoring 40 points in the post. Senior Cade Carter was there for 16 points while freshman Jackson McVey added 14. Ethan Banks also found success from close range and finished with 15 points.
Gilmer was down 19-7 late in the first quarter. GHS began the second quarter behind, 21-11, before the Tigers went cold. By the half, GHS led, 30-28.
The second half was played closely, and Dawson held a momentarily 36-34 lead late in the third. The Cats closed out the quarter with a 41-37 edge, which they did not relinquish in the fourth.
“The main thing we were trying to do was keep No. 2 (Caden Reed) and No. 10 (Trey Harvey) from going crazy,” head coach Jordan Hice said. “We knew they were going to hit some threes, and they came out strong in the first quarter and didn’t miss many shots (9/16). But they dropped off in the second (shooting 2/9 from the field) and in the third (3/13), and we continued to make the easy buckets. Dawson is one of those teams that shoots a lot of threes.”
The Tigers made just 5/18 three-point attempts on the night.
Carter also led GHS with nine rebounds and McVey collected six. Will Kiker added eight points, and Lewis Mulkey scored three points and grabbed five boards.
Against East Forsyth, it came down to a matchup between the Broncos’ outside shooting versus the Bobcats’ inside game, and the latter proved to be the better strategy. Gilmer continually fed the ball to the post while EFHS was content on launching three pointers.
“We got into a zone defense, and they were streaky from outside. They’d hit a few threes and catch back up then miss a bunch in a row, and we just tried to continue to score,” Hice said.
“We had 46 points in the paint. They weren’t even doubling down on any of our posts so we just isolated the post down low and played one on one.”
McVey was the beneficiary and scored 26 points and collected eight rebounds. Mulkey had eight rebounds as well and totaled 12 points, while Christian Sumner scored with 10.
EFHS was feast or famine from outside and shot 14/39 from beyond the arc and made 6/12 two-point attempts.
The Broncos led 12-10 after a quarter, and McVey and Mulkey combined for 14 points in the second. Gilmer surged ahead by the half, 34-25.
McVey was there for 13 third quarter points. East Forsyth’s offense picked up once the Broncos decided not to focus exclusively on outside shots. GHS entered the fourth with a 52-43 lead. Both teams stuck to their game-long strategies in the fourth and the Bobcats prevailed.
GHS out-rebounded EFHS 38-18, and Banks led Gilmer with 10 in addition to six points. Kiker scored eight, as did Carter, who snatched eight boards.
“We’ve really been focusing on our inside game a lot because nobody has been able to stop us these last two games,” Hice said. “Jackson McVey had two good games and Cade played well against Dawson but was injured some versus East Forsyth.
“We’ve really reverted to post play the last two games.”
Gilmer is 17-7 overall and 8-4 versus region opponents. The Cats hosted North Hall at press deadline and will make their way to Cherokee Bluff Friday for an 8:30 p.m. game.
Junior varsity
The junior varsity Bobcats earned two decisive road wins last week. After beating Dawson County 55-35 Tuesday, they pounded East Forsyth 71-36 Friday.
McVey tallied 16 points versus Dawson and Jacob Becerra was there for 12 while Ryder Wofford finished with 10.
Dawson was able to keep pace early, but faded in the second half, which began with GHS leading, 26-23. Becerra, McVey and J.D. Taylor did all of the damage in the third, and Gilmer took a 39-28 edge into the fourth.
GHS more than doubled Dawson’s points in the final quarter as six Bobcats pitched in and Gilmer won by 20.
Taylor added nine points, James Wright was there for four and both Blane Banks and Mack Kiser scored two.
East Forsyth had no answer for McVey, who scored 28 points in three quarters of play and 24 came before the half.
Gilmer pushed its 17-11 first quarter lead to 34-25 at the break. Wofford and Becerra tallied nine and eight points, respectively, in the third. Meanwhile, EFHS only scored three, and GHS opened a 59-28 advantage.
The Cats continued their dominance in the fourth to improve their record to 13-4 on the season.
Wofford added 13 points for GHS, Becerra finished with eight and Kohan Davis scored seven.