LITTLE CYPRESS — Meeting for the third time this season, with each game being a tight affair, the Bridge City Lady Cardinals snagged a 52-48 road win Friday night to down the Little Cypress-Mauriceville Lady Bears to earn the third-place playoff seed out of District 22-4A.

Both teams finished the 22-4A season with 5-5 marks, so it was basically a nice tuneup game for both before each enter the playoffs next week.

The Lady Cardinals built as big as a 35-24 midway through the third quarter only to see the Lady Bears claw their way back to get to within three twice, but Bridge City was able to hold on down the stretch to snag the victory.

Power forward Madison Fischer led a balanced Lady Cardinal arsenal as she filtered in a team-high 13 points to go along with five rebounds.

Kassidy Wilbur chirped her way to 10 points and six boards for the Lady Cardinals. Point guard Maysen Tyler had nine points, seven of them coming in the vital fourth quarter. Aniah Hicks had nine points while Caitlyn Dennison snared a team-high nine rebounds for the Lady Cardinals.

Guard Chelsea Perry scored a game-high 16 points for the Lady Bears and snagged six rebounds. She led a late LC-M surge, scoring 11 of her points after intermission. Jacie Miller had 10 points and seven boards. Karly Rogers had eight points and a game-high 10 rebounds. Genesis Barclay had seven points and eight rebounds while Kodee Ferguson chimed in with seven points and six boards.

The Lady Cardinals were coached by assistant Lance Robertson, who subbed in for head coach JoLee Kolander, who had her baby Friday.

The Lady Cardinals and Lady Bears will venture to the same location for their Class 4A Region III bidistrict playoff battles Monday at Woodvillle High School.

The Lady Cardinals will take on District 21-4A runnerup Lufkin Hudson at 6:15 p.m. while the Lady Bears will take on 21-4A champion Diboll immediately following the first game.

The Lady Bears held a 14-12 edge at the end of the first period as Barclay bruised her way inside for six points and five rebounds in the quarter while Miller had four points. Hicks had five for the Lady Cardinals, including a three-pointer.

Bridge City went on a 13-6 spurt in the second period to go up 25-20 at the half as Fischer and Wilbur each tallied four points apiece and LC-M went cold from the field.

The Lady Cardinals, sparked by a big three-pointer and five points from Fischer, opened the third period with a 10-4 spurt to snag a 35-24 edge. However, the Lady Bears went on a 7-0 run, sparked by a three-pointer by Perry and two buckets by Miller, to pull to within 35-31. Fischer then buried a pair of free-throws near the end of the quarter to push it 37-31.

The Lady Bears would get as close as 40-37, but the Lady Cardinals, sparked by the slashing layups by Tyler, took control again at 46-37 and were able to hang on, despite a couple late buckets by LC-M.

Despite the loss, LC-M dominated the glass, outrebounding the Lady Cardinals 48-32. However, Bridge City was much better from the free-throw line, going 14-of-20, while the Lady Bears were just 8-of-17.

The Lady Cardinals finished with 13 turnovers while the Lady Bears had 12.