The Gilmer High Bobcats dropped a pair of region games last week.
GHS hosted the White County Warriors Tuesday. A slow first half hurt the Bobcats, and they never caught the Warriors in a 59-44 loss.
The Bobcats hit the road Friday to take on the Lumpkin County Indians. GHS had a tough time getting close-range shots to fall while the Indians were buoyed by a 27-point performance by Jones Harris. Gilmer trailed throughout and lost, 60-48.
When the Bobcats took the court against White County they were down two starters. Coupled with offensive struggles, GHS had its work cut out.
“The worst part about it was the slow start. If we have a better first half, we could’ve possibly won that ball game,” said coach Jordan Hice.
Seven players scored for White in the first half as they made five three pointers but also penetrated and drove to the basket.
GHS trailed 16-8 after the first quarter and only managed two points in the second and fell behind 39-10 at the half.
“We were down again big at halftime. It probably did have something to do with having two starters out,” Hice said. “You’re expecting some things from players that normally aren’t the ones you rely on to start and get things going.
“We would expect a slow start, but I tell the guys the minimum points we can score in a quarter is 10. Anything over 10, you’re doing good. When the other team makes such a huge run, it kills you when trying to get back into the game.”
Gilmer’s offense picked up in the third quarter as five Bobcats scored. Bryson Sisson was there for six points, while Braden Jenkins and Brady Sanford both added four and Britt Taylor hit a three pointer.
White only managed six points but still maintained a 47-30 lead with eight minutes to play.
The Bobcats looked outside to spark a comeback. Jenkins hit two more threes and Taylor made another. GHS cut the margin to 49-40 with 5:15 to play but never got any closer. White relied on driving to the basket, which produced 12 more points to close out the game.
Jenkins led GHS with 14 points, Sisson scored eight, Cade Carter had nine and Taylor finished with six.
Gilmer was without a starter against Lumpkin. Harris hit four threes on the night for LCHS and made 9/10 free-throw attempts.
“We couldn’t really seem to stop him,” Hice said. “He was either drawing fouls or hitting threes. We did a bad job there. Braden (15 points) and Cade (16) had good games for us, but we just didn’t have much scoring after that. If we had made those layups, we could have easily made up that 12-point deficit.”
Harris was not the only Indian to find success from long-range. Lumpkin drained 10 threes on the night, and seven fell in the second half.
GHS was able to cut into Lumpkin’s 18-11 first quarter lead to trail 27-22 at halftime.
Aside from Carter and Jenkins, Carson Pierce scored four in the third quarter, but LCHS started to heat up once more. The Indians extended their lead to 46-33 entering the fourth.
Carter had his best quarter and scored seven points and Jenkins added six more. Lumpkin continued to shoot threes and made four over the final eight minutes to secure the win.
“We missed a lot of easy buckets,” Hice said. “It seemed like a game we could’ve won, but we were missing layups the whole game.”
Pierce added seven points for GHS and Sanford scored six.
Gilmer is 6-10 overall and hosted Dawson at press deadline. The Bobcats will take on Adarisville Saturday on the road at 5:30 p.m.