By Caleb Adams

Leader Correspondent

ORANGEFIELD — The Bridge City Cardinals edged out the Orangefield Bobcats in a tough fought game 40-37 in Orangefield Tuesday night in District 22-4A action.

The bigs for Bridge City (12-8, 2-2), Dane Piper and Hunter Weigraffe, controlled the post for the Cardinals and helped create plays in the paint. Point guard Brandon Vela also created plays with good vision while driving the lane and dishing when teammates were open.

Piper lead the Cardinals with 10 points, eight coming in the fourth quarter to help seal the game. Justyn Romero was close behind with eight. Max Baker fnished with six points and made two three-pointers.

The game started with Bridge City coming out quick going up 8-4 early, but Orangefield (8-13, 0-4) closed the game ending the quarter 10-9. Orangefield’s Zach Dischler put up five points in the first quarter, with three coming from behind the arc.

The Bobcats made big strides with Caleb Kress hitting two key three’s midway through the second quarter. Alex Catt also hit a three, and went two-for-two from the free throw line accounting for the rest of the points for Orangefield in the quarter. After the first half ended Orangefield led Bridge City 21-18.

Kress finished with 11 points and seven rebounds for the Bobcats. Catt had 11 points and four boards while Dischler added four assists.

Bridge City had a tough time finding points in the third quarter, only putting up eight points. The Bobcat defense stood tough throughout the quarter allowing their offense to take the lead.

Baker would find his shot in the third quarter making two three’s in succession to help the Cards play catch up. After Romero and Vela both drove and scored, Bridge City went up 28-25 to end the third.

Orangefield wasn’t done yet, putting up a strong fight making three important long range shots to make the game close, but couldn’t find the last few points to close the gap entirely. Piper had a huge eight-point fourth quarter for the Cardinals.

The Cardinals will welcome in Silsbee Friday while the Bobcats play host to Hamshire-Fannett.