ULYSSES — Holcomb got a league win at home Tuesday against Hugoton, but coach Chad Novack wasn’t happy with the way his Longhorns played.
Friday on the road at Ulysses, their eighth road game in nine games, he was much more pleased with his team’s effort in a 65-45 over the Tigers.
Holcomb, which took a 13-6 lead in the first with 1:45 to play, scored on 10 possessions in the second period to take a 38-20 lead at intermission, thanks in part to 5 of 6 shooting from behind the arc.
In that half, Trey Gilbert had 16 points, significantly more than the two he had Tuesday. The senior, averaging 17 points a game, finished with 21.
Ulysses upped the pressure in the third quarter, but the Tigers had to sit playmaker Bryan Garcia at the 2:26 mark when he picked up his fourth foul.
Holcomb made just three field goals in the third to Ulysses’ five, but 7 of 10 free throws made up the difference.
Garcia fouled out early in the fourth with 11 points, with his team down 20 points. Devin Walker, a 6-6 post, fouled out with four minutes to play, finishing with nine points.
And Ulysses could manage just three field goals in the final quarter.
For Novack, the big difference between Tuesday’s win and Friday’s was simple.
“Overall, it was our team energy,” he said. “That’s’ something we always preach — no matter if you’re on the floor or off the floor, everybody’s doing their job, doing something. Tonight we did a really good job of our whole team being focused, being in the game and communicating.”
Ulysses tried to run a zone against the Holcomb offense, but Novack saw his team, for the most part, handle it.
“The first half we were really aggressive. We shot the ball with confidence and we attacked gaps,” he said. “And we also crashed the boards extremely well, and that was a big difference.”
Holcomb outrebounded the Tigers 39-14, with 17 of those on the offensive end.
“When we didn’t make (our shots), we got the second chance shots, and even the third chance shots that gave us a lot of confidence,” Novack said.
Jaidon Taylor, who led Ulysses with 14 points, hit the Tigers’ first shot in each of the first three quarters, but the team finished 17 of 47 overall, including 3 of 18 from 3-point range.
Holcomb’s first quarter, though a bit rough with five turnovers and just six field goals, morphed into an ideal second period with 10 of 16 shooting (5 of 7 from 3-point) and just one turnover.
“It was one of those things where we actually took care of the ball and got really good shots in the second quarter,” Novack said. “First quarter, we had so many empty possessions it limited us on offense.”
That’s the type of difference he was hoping to see after Tuesday.
Ulysses coach Chris Wagner saw his team put up the effort, but he, too, saw the board differential as critical.
“They’re really disciplined,” he said of the Longhorns. “They hunt offensive rebounds extremely well, as the stats will show tonight. Those are two main things that go a long way.”
Defensively, Wagner switched to a 1-3-1 zone in the second half to try to limit Holcomb on the boards. That pressure, with some man defense in the fourth, limited Holcomb to just six field goals in the final frames, but it was too much to overcome.
“Regardless of what we ran defensively, we just didn’t get a lot of rebounds, and that hurt us more than anything,” Wagner said.
They get a chance to improve on that Tuesday when the Tigers (7-8, 2-3) host Dodge City.
Holcomb (14-1, 6-0) will be on the road again when they travel to Lakin.