The boys’ basketball team, the FLC Bobcats, lost against the Parkway Center City Bulldogs during their first home game of the 2023-2024 season on December 11, 2023, with a score of 39-55.
With many star players leaving last year and many newcomers joining this year, the Bobcats have to adjust to work with the new team. The Bobcats started their season with two away games both resulting in losses. Regardless of the losses, this game proved the new team has a lot of new potential. Coming into this game players had their doubts due to the previous games but with hopeful attitudes.
“I kept getting in my head. I felt like after I didn’t see a lot of stuff happening on the team like we wasn’t running their offense,” said Power Forward Kadeem Martin. “I just got in my head, because I know I can’t play the whole team by myself.”
Going into the first quarter the Bobcats managed to get 8 points, but the PCC Bulldogs had the upper hand scoring 15 points. Martin managed to score 5 out of the 8 points. Regardless of the Bobcats being down in points, the Bobcats had a gym full of an audience to play for.
“I feel like it was good. It was a lot of energy out here. I like everybody that came out tonight to see us play,” said Point Guard Keymir Hargrove. “This is a very energizing home game.”
In the second quarter, the Bobcats scored 9 points, but the PCC Bulldogs managed to score another 15 points resulting in the second quarter score being 17-30. Forward Zion Torrence was responsible for 6 of the 9 points scored. Fans of the Bobcats still cheered every time they scored yelling things like “Go defense.” Overall, this quarter was not in favor of the Bobcats.
“I feel like we were trailing down and I felt like we had to get back on our feet. We started off slow,” said Hargrove. “We wanted to get back on track.”
In the third quarter, the Bobcats started to make a comeback. PCC Bulldogs scored 10 points, but the Bobcats dominated this quarter scoring 15 points. This brought the score of the game to 32-40. Although the PCC Bulldogs were still leading the Bobcats were right behind them.
“I feel like in the first half, we weren’t moving the ball right [but] in the second half, we came out there we were more efficient more stronger with the passes,” said Hargrove. “We moved the ball well.”
In the final quarter, a lot of animosity filled the air. FLC Bobcats were starting to approach the PCC Bulldogs in points. A cheering section from PCC started to chant and stomp for the Bulldogs and FLC cheerleaders retaliated by doing a cheer routine in response. The Bobcats ended up scoring 7 points while the Bulldogs scored 15.
“I felt like we did really good our third quarter coming in. We definitely had a lot of defensive stops, and that’s what we needed,” said Martin. “But I felt like after the fourth quarter when he started going on a run a little bit. I felt like we just stopped because we thought we lost. I feel like we just needed to keep going applying that pressure.”
After the game, the team reflected on their performance, especially the players who were on the team last season.
“I feel like if we keep continuing to keep playing together as a team over the years that we definitely won’t be strong,” said Martin. “But as of right now, we’re definitely not better than the team last year, but we’re good.”
Entering the game with a 0-2 record in the conference, the Bobcats believe that they are getting better after every game.
“I feel like this is an improvement from the previous games,” said Hargrove. “If you take a look at our previous games we really didn’t do well moving the ball at all in this game, even though we didn’t come out with the W I feel like we still improved as a team.”
Regardless of the losing streak the team is on, players appreciate the people who came in support of the team.
“It was a lot of energy out here,” said Hargrove. “I like everybody that came out tonight. see us play. This is a very energizing first home game.”
