By Caleb Adams

Leader Correspondent

 

BRIDGE CITY — The Bridge City Cardinals beat the Orangefield Bobcats in a thrilling overtime 58-56 win in District 22-4A action at Cardinal Gym Tuesday night.

With every tick of the clock, the game became more and more exciting and came down to the absolute last second shot from Chason Burch to win it. It was an instant classic for sure.

Burch buried a three-point missile at the buzzer to lift the Cardinals to the big win.

For the Cardinals (9-13, 2-2) Hunter Weigreffe led the team with 15 points and Max Baker had 14 to spark a balanced attack.

Zach Dischler had 15 to lead the Bobcats (13-13, 0-4) while, Aven Lathrop had 13 and Tyrone Waggoner had nine.

This game has huge implications for the playoffs, even though it is still in the first half of district play.

The first quarter was slow and both teams had trouble finding scores, missing easy shots. The Cardinals’ Kolton Weeks had seven points in the quarter, and Orangefield’s Tyrone Waggoner had six. The Bobcats lead the Cardinals 11-10 heading into the second quarter.

The Cardinals still hhad trouble finding points with only two, with two minutes left in the first half. The Bobcats on the other hand went on a 9-2 run in that same time frame to grow their lead. The Bobcats lead 20-14 heading into halftime.

The Bobcats came into the second half with their shot on and quick. Dischler and Lathrop dropped back to back threes while the Cardinals couldn’t find points. Dischler came back on the next possession to drain another one from long range to keep the pressure on as Bridge City went down 31-16 in a matter of two minutes.

The Bobcats had a solid nine-point lead at 38-29 heading into the fourth quarter. The Bobcats built their lead to as many as 12 points late in the third, The Cardinals started to slow them down at the end of the quarter, but struggled to score points of their own.

The Cardinals finally found their shots consistently in the fourth quarter. After scoring four unanswered points, Burch, hit a long three-pointer to make it just a five-point game, which really got fans on both sides into the game as it became loud.

Late into the fourth quarter the Cardinals defense started to step up, behind a strong effort by Caleb Honeycutt, the Cardinals began to cause mayhem wherever they were on the court. The Cardinals method was just put Honeycutt on who has the ball and go at him.

The Bobcats struggled with their shot in the fourth quarter and the Cardinals took advantage, pulling back to within just one point at 47-46 with just 0:40 on the clock.

The Cardinals clawed back off of a Max Baker three-point bomb with 20 seconds on the clock to tie itas the thriller between the two Orange County units carried over into an extra session..

The Cardinals found the first lead of the night in overtime with 26.9 seconds on the clock. This was the definition of a solid comeback.

Alex Catt, for the Bobcats, hit a late shot to go up one with under ten seconds left, but the Cardinals’ Burch had other plans with his three-point last-ditch shot.

The Cardinals will head to Silsbee to face defending 4A state champion Silsbee Friday while the Bobcats visit Hamshire-Fannett.