By Ronnnie Hughes

Leader Correspondent

LITTLE CYPRESS — A red hot Little Cypress-Mauriceville Bears team took to the court Tuesday night and handled business in fine fashion to open the second half of District 24-4A play.

The Bears bench contributed 18 points in a 64-36 stomping of the Hamshire-Fannett Longhorns at The Bear Cave.

LC-M improved to 4-3 in district and are currently in third-place.

The Longhorns game plan was to double-team Cameron Parker in hopes of slowing down his hot shooting streak and they did succeed holding him to just three points. However, they forgot about the rest of the Bears squad that can play ball with the best of them. Katon Brown dropped 19 points in the blowout win while playing limited minutes once the Bears lead got too large.

The Bears pressured the Longhorns early and often causing them to open the game 0-10 shooting while the Bears took advantage of the Horns’ early foul trouble. Brown notched the first six points of the game with junior Jordan Garcia chipping in four points off the bench for an early, 13-5 lead after one quarter of play.

Hamshire-Fannett found a little hope in the 6’4” 245 pound forward, Jordan Johnson, who came alive to score the first nine points of the game for the Longhorns. The Bears under estimated his big size and left him open for long range shots early in which he made with his soft touch type shot. The short 7-1 run by the Longhorns was short lived as the Bears attacked back with Andrew Daspit driving hard to the basket to ignite an 8-0 run before the half to put the bears in control, 31-17. Johnson notched 18 points for the Longhorns on the night.

The Bears continued to roll as they started the second half off right where they left off the first. Daspit continued to work the boards and drove home the first five points of the half while the Bears added to their already large lead. Parker found his first and only shot of the game with three minutes remaining in the third quarter when he hit a three-point shot from the corner which gave LC-M a 22 point lead. Daspit contributed 10 points on the night and was perfect from the free throw line.

The game was out of reach for the Longhorns entering the fourth and final quarter as they trailed, 51-26. The Horns’ were out of gas having just one player to sub in on the night while the Bears rolled much of the fourth with their bench players. Brown took advantage of his final moments in the game with a huge put back to extend the lead to 31 points for the Bears. Longhorns mustered just eight points in the final quarter being unable to find an answer for the swarming defense of the Battlin’ Bears.

The Bears will put their three-game win streak on the line Friday night at Bridge City in an important district 24-4A match-up. The Longhorns are still searching for their first win since December 14^th after falling to 2-18 on the season and 0-7 in district play. They will host Orangefield on Friday.