There’s no way to gloss it up, sugarcoat it or spin the narrative into something else.
The Madison Bobcats entered The Palace and whipped the Pocatello Indians 70-39 Wednesday night.
From the opening tip, Madison, ranked fifth in the 5A Idaho boys media poll, controlled the run of play and executed offensively with precision and patience while shutting down the Indians’ offense on the other end.
“You can’t say a whole lot except they just came out and beat us in basically every aspect of the game,” said Poky head coach Joe Green. “You have to give them credit.”
The Bobcats (5-0) started the game on a 14-0 run. The Indians’ first points came via a 2-point shot from Brayden Danner with two minutes and 30 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
“I think we played a little bit afraid the first quarter. That’s not to take anything away from Madison,” Green said. “They played hard and they played pressure defense, but at the same time we played a little bit afraid and tentative. If you play afraid to make a mistake, you’re probably going to make that mistake.”
Madison led 16-4 headed into the second quarter and 37-17 by half.
But Poky found some life and offensive initiative in the eight minutes before the break. Senior point guard Cade Pearson offset Madison’s ball pressure by driving hard at the rim, scoring six straight points for the Indians to close out the half.
Pearson’s moments of brilliance define Pocatello’s season. The Indians are 1-5 overall and 0-2 in the 4A 5-6 District. Every night a player here or a player there will string together a few good plays. Junior David Reichelt poured in all eight of his points in the third quarter.
But Pocatello hasn’t managed to wrangle together a consistent four periods.
“We have a couple guys doing a couple good things, but when we don’t have all five clicking on all cylinders we’re not going to be successful,” Green said. “We did have flashes.”
Madison’s Dallas Crane led the Bobcats with 18. Senior Lyle Sutton added 12 for the winning team that had nine different players score. Madison made 26 of its 51 field-goal attempts.
“They played together so long. (Madison) coach (Bill) Hawkins does a good job,” Green said. “They’re really disciplined. They’re just a good team.”
Pearson finished with eight for the Indians and both Danner and Riley Whaley chipped in six.
The Indians have one more game before Christmas break. The Indians travel to Blackfoot Saturday. After that, Pocatello is off until Jan. 4. It’s a break Green is looking forward to.
“It’s going to be huge,” he said. “We knew with little experience, a new system and a new coach, we thought it was possible we’d start out slow. We didn’t want to, but that break will be big for us to just regroup and come back in the second half of the season and hopefully go on a little run.”
Madison 70, Pocatello 39
Madison 16 21 26 7 — 70
Pocatello 4 13 15 7 — 39
Madison — Justin Ball 5, Josh Crane 7, Dallas Crane 18, Lyle Sutton 12, Logan Parkinson 5, Mitchell South 4, Taylor Williams 9, Riley Pierce 8, Mitchel Skinner 2.
Pocatello — Brayden Danner 6, Mitchell Nielsen 2, Cade Pearson 8, Riley Whaley 6, Nicholas Musetti 5, David Reichelt 8, Joseph Pollard 4.