Bobcat basketball bounced in playoff

The Comfort boys basketball team opened and closed its postseason in one day after the Bobcats were defeated in their playoff opener Monday in Brady.

San Angelo Texas Leadership Charter Academy defeated Comfort, 85-50 to end the 2023-24 season for the Bobcats.

Comfort closes the year at 19-14 and was the third seed from District 5-3A. San Angelo TLCA was the second seed and played Holliday Friday in the next round.

The TLCA squad took command right away and jumped out to a 30-6 lead by the end of the first quarter but the Bobcats played better in the second and outscored the San Angelo school, 19-11, and the lead was down to 41-25 at halftime.

But that was as close as Comfort would get. TLCA netted 24 in the third, while Comfort tallied 16 and the lead ballooned to 24 points at 65-41.

San Angelo closed it out by winning the fourth quarter, 20-9. They had three players finish with 20 points each.

Jared Valadez led Comfort with 16 points, Jaydin Steward added 11, Joel Lozano scored 7, Jackson Dear and Terick Rodriguez both tallied 6 and Santos Hernandez finished with 4.

Steward made it a double-double with 13 rebounds, Lozano recorded 4 assists and Valadez came up with 3 steals.

Comfort will graduate four seniors: Joel Lozano, Aiden Schwarz, Santos Hernandez and Terick Rodriguez.