LITTLE CYPRESS — Finding their shooting touch n the second half, the Little Cypress-Mauriceville Bears notched a 66-59 District 22-4A victory over the West Orange-Stark Mustangs in front of a packed house at The Bear Cave Tuesday night.

The Bears (22-12, 8-2), the second-place team out of 22-4A to wrap up the regular season, trailed the Mustangs (10-15, 5-5) 30-25 at the half.

However, the Bears scored the first 10 points of the third quarter and went on a 19-6 run to go up 44-36 entering the fourth.

The Mustangs tried to rally back but the Bears got it done from the free-throw line late to preserve the victory.

Senior guard Ayson Simmons powered the LC-M arsenal with 21 points, 12 coming in the second half.

Katon Brown chimed in with 16 points and seven boards. LC-M sharpshooter Keegan Sonnier found the range, ripping four three-pointers for the night, three of them in the second half as he finished with 16 points.

The Mustangs wound up in a third-place tie with Bridge City (15-11, 5-5). Both teams are in the playoffs and they will break the third-place tie with a game later this week. Bridge City fell to first-place Silsbee 102-35 Tuesday.

Point guard KJ Miller paced the Mustang attack with 21 points, 12 coming in the second half. Cory Skinner contributed 12 points and six boards. Terron Brown had eight points and five rebounds. Jay’len Mathews had seven points and seven rebounds and Malick Phillips added seven rebounds.

The Mustangs finished with a 36-24 rebounding edge. Jacolven Provost had six boards for the Bears.

The Bears got it done from the charity stripe, converting 23-of-31 from the free-throw line. WO-S finished just 5-of-13. LC-M had 11 turnovers while WO-S had 10.

WO-S started the game with a 10-0 run as the Bears narrowed it to 18-12 at the end of the period and trimmed it to five at intermission.