ORANGEFIELD — Applying some strong defense and going on a couple big runs, the Little Cypress-Mauriceville Bears took down the Orangefield Bobcats 56-40 in District 22-4A action at Bobcat Gym.

The Bears (16-10, 2-0) jumped out to a 8-2 lead at the end of the first quarter and then pulled away from the Bobcats (13-11, 0-2) with a 24-6 spurt in the third period to go up 46-21 going into the final period.

Senior Katon Brown sparked the Bears with a big double-double as he collected 17 points and 13 rebounds.

Braden Bridges fired in 11 points for the Bears while Ty’Reke Brown was a spark, especially on the defensive end, and ended up with 10 points.

Guard Zach Dischler sparked the Bobcat arsenal with 11 points and was a perfect 6-of-6 from the free-throw line.

The Bears scored the game’s first eight points in the first quarter as they slowed the game down. Alex Catt finally got the Bobcats on the board with a late bucket.

The Browns tallied nine points for the Bears in the second quarter with Katon scoring five points and Ty’Reke chiming in with four as the Bears built a 22-12 edge. However, a Dischler three-point bomb got the Bobcats to within 22-15 at the half.

Ryan Deutsch made two free throws to start the third quarter for Orangefield to make it 22-17 but that was as close as the Bobcats would get as the Bears finished the period with a 24-4 jaunt.

Katon Brown muscled his way inside the paint for nine points in the period while. Ty’Reke Brown drove through the lane for six points while Bridges had five in the quarter.

The Bobcats went on to outscore the Bears 19-10 in the game’s final eight minutes.

The Bears had a dominating performance on the boards as they outrebounded the Bobcats by a whopping 42-21 margin.

Tristan Rhodes had 10 boards for the Bears while Christian Weatherly had eight and Brayden Bridges had six and also added six points along with Cole Frost.

Dylan Williams led the Bobcats with six rebounds. Alex Catt had five points and five rebounds while Kaiden DuBose added six points.

The Bobcats finished with 13 turnovers while the Bears had 12.

The Bobcats were 16-of-23 from the free-throw line while the Bears went 9-of-16.

The Bears will host defending state champion Silsbee (15-8, 2-0) Friday night. Silsbee hammered Hamshire-Fannett (1-12, 0-2) 118-19 Thursday.

The Bobcats, meanwhile, will visit West Orange-Stark (10-10, 2-0), which defeated Bridge City (7-13, 0-2) 51-38.