LITTLE CYPRESS — It was a tough shooting outing for the Little Cypress-Mauriceville Lady Bears as they opened up their 2017-18 basketball campaign with a 35-25 defeat at the hands of the Port Neches-Groves Lady Indians Monday night in the first official basketball game at the new Bear Cave.

The Lady Bears never could quite get their offense on track, especially in the first half as they trailed 18-6 at intermission after making just one field goal in the game’s first 16 minutes.

LC-M played much better in the second half but PN-G was able to keep the Lady Bears at bay for much of the night.

Jacie Miller led the Lady Bears (0-1) as she collected a double-double, scoring 10 points while snagging 15 rebounds. All 10 of her points came in the second half as she looked to ingnite a spark.

Lady Bear post player Karly Rogers chimed in with eight points and six boards. Point guard Chelsea Perry, fresh off the volleyball court from the Lady Bears district championship team, tallied five points and grabbed five rebounds.

Turnovers and missed free throws plagued the Lady Bears. LC-M went just 5-of-17 from the charity stripe and committed 30 turnovers.

Mollee Priddy led the Lady Indians (1-0) with 12 points, six of them coming in the second quarter in which the Lady Indians went on a 11-2 spurt after leading 7-4 at the end of the first quarter.

PN-G post Harlee Barnwell also had a double-double as she had 10 points and collected 15 rebounds.

The Lady Bears finished with a 46-41 rebounding edge.

PN-G finished with 15 turnovers and managed to go just 14-of-31 from the free-throw line.

Rogers scored six of her points in the second half for the Lady Bears while Miller rumbled inside for six of her points in the final stanza.

Zoe Levens and Zaria Johnson each had four rebounds for LC-M while Jacie Droddy and Holly Jones had four rebounds apiece for PN-G.

The Lady Bears will look to bounce back next week when they travel to Kirbyville on Tuesday.