WEST ORANGE — In what was a wild affair, the Little Cypress-Mauriceville Bears went on the road and snagged sole possession of second-place in the District 22-4A race by taking down West Orange-Stark 64-59 in an amazing triple overtime game at Mustang Gym.

Both teams went at it all night on both ends of the floor. Each team had shots to win it at the end of regulation and the first two overtimes but each squad got it done with some defensive stops.

However, it was the Bears (18-11, 4-1) that had the answers in the third session as guards Ayson Simmons and Braden Bridges played huge.

WO-S guard KJ Miller put the Mustangs (8-11, 3-2) up 55-53 with a nice drive. Simmons promptly answered on the other end with a slashing drive as well to tie it. Simmons would eventually nail 3-out-of-4 free-throws and Bridges was able to sink four straight charity shots as the Bears were able to hang on for the victory. LC-M was able to force a couple WO-S turnovers down the stretch and survived a Jay’Len Mathews’ three-pointer that got WO-S to within 60-59.

The game was tied at 53-53 entering the third overtime as neither team could score in the final 1:28 of the second extra session.

A Simmons jumper with 0:23 left in the first overtime tied it up at 47-47 and it remained that way.

At the end of regulation, WO-S’ Miller had a jumper that looked good but rattled out and Mustang forward Terron Brown grabbed the rebound and his shot just barely rimmed out and was almost good as the teams ended regulation at 41-41.

Simmons led the Bears with 19 points and also grabbed six rebounds. Bridges finished with 18 points. Keegan Sonnier and Katon Brown each had 11 points for the Bears while Jacolven Provost had six boards.

Miller led the Mustangs with 16 points and had six rebounds. Terron Brown played well, tallying 13 points and grabbing seven boards. Brettlin White had 11 points while Mathews had nine. Cory Skinner yanked down a game-high 10 rebounds for the Mustangs while Tarik Riley added six boards.

The Mustangs finished wth a 41-26 rebounding edge.

The Bears had 18 turnovers while WO-S had 14.

LC-M finished 15of-26 from the free-throw line while WO-S converted 11-of-15.

The Bears led 13-7 at the end of the first quarter and 21-15 at intermission.

LC-M led 29-24 early in the third but the Mustangs closed with an 8-0 run to lead 32-29 heading to the fourth.

The Mustangs will visit Hamshire-Fannett Tuesday while the Bears return home to tangle with Bridge City.