By Caleb Adams

Leader Correspondent

 

LITTLE CYPRESS — The Little Cypress-Mauriceville Bears toppled the Orangefield Bobcats 50-44 in District 22-4A action at The Grove Friday night in a tight contest.

The Bears (20-11, 6-1) continue to look solid heading into the post season as they remain in second-place behind defending 4A state champion Silsbee, showing that they have a shot of making a deep run into the playoffs after holding back the pesky Bobcats (15-14, 2-5).

The Bobcats are still in a fight to make the playoffs, but have struggled to find the offensive power to win late into games.

The Bears’ leading scorers on the night were Braden Bridges with 16 points, and Katon Brown with 15 points. Both players were a major reason they won, combining for31 of the 50 points scored. Brown and Bridges for the Bears are the work horses and it showed on the scoreboard.

The Bobcats’ leading scorers were guard Zach Dischler with 16 points and forward Alex Catt with 11 points. Dischler hit a few late threes to keep the game close.

On the defensive side, Tyreke Brown for the Bears created tough shots and bad passes all night making the Bobcats work even harder for each chance to score. The Bobcats’ Dylan Williams was a force on the inside for the Bobcats defense in a similar way as Brown.

The Bears, will visit Silsbee (20-8, 7-0) Friday. The first-place Tigers defeated struggling Hamshire-Fannett (3-15, 2-5) 107-13 Friday.

It was an emotional night for the Bears as they honored eight players for Senior Night.

Both teams struggled to find points in the first quarter, but the Bears found a one point lead at 9-8. Both teams were hampered with poor shooting early. Cole Frost led the Bears with three points in the period while guard Aven Lathrop led the Bobcats with four.

The Bears found their shot at the beginning of the second quarter as Frost had six points in the quarter, including a buzzer-beating three to take the late lead into the half at 22-19.

The Bobcats also found a little groove, but theirs’ came in the final two minutes of the quarter. But they were able to keep it close as Lathrop led the way with six points at the half.

Both teams turned up the volume in the third quarter as the game became more and more chippy over the course of the quarter, and the LC-M student section got into the game, showing how much they wanted the Bears to snag the win.

Dischler, for the Bobcats, became a big threat offensively in the third quarter and had 14 points by the end of the third as the Bobcats clawed their way back to just a 34-32 deficit heading to the fourth.

The Bears took their biggest lead of the night at nine mid-way through the fourth quarter, as the Bobcats struggled on the offensive end. Ultimately the Bears take the victory 50-44 in a hard fought game, after a late Bridges three-point missile sealed the game’s fate.

The Bobcats will look to bounce back Tuesday night when they host West Orange-Stark. WO-S (9-16), which had to forfeit four 22-4A wins due to an ineligible player, defeated Bridge City Friday night to go to 1-6 in district. Bridge City, which hosts H-F Tuesday, is now 10-14 overall and 3-5 in district.