BRIDGE CITY – The Little Cypress-Mauriceville Lady Bears struggled mightily from the free-throw line all night but senior Lady Bear post Karly Rogers buried the biggest one of the year with two seconds remaining Friday night as the Lady Bears escaped Bridge City with a 36-35 victory to secure the third-place playoff berth out of District 22-4A at Cardinal Gym.

The Lady Bears (21-10, 7-4) converted just 8-of-21 free-throws on the night. Rogers was fouled with 0:02 remining. She missed the front end of the two shots but calmly drained the second one to seal the victory.

The Lady Cardinals (21-13, 5-6) played much better against the Lady Bears in their second matchup in district play. The Lady Bears defeated the Lady Cardinals 55-26 at The Bear Cave.

The Lady Bears jumped out to a 13-6 lead by the end of the first quarter as Chelsea Perry and Zaria Johnson combined to score all 13 points.

The Lady Cardinals scrapped to within 20-17 at intermission and then limited the Lady Bears to just one field goal to grab a 26-24 edging heading to the fourth quarter behind two huge three-pointers by Hanna Wiegreffe in the third.

Perry led the Lady Bears with a double-double as the junior point guard finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Johnson finished with 10 points. Rogers had six points and a game-high 12 rebounds while Britney Wyatt added six boards for the Lady Bears.

Power forward Madison Fischer had a solid outing for the Lady Cardinals as she had nine points and a team-high 11 rebounds while Wiegreffe also had nine points and finished with five boards. Aspen Daniels added eight points and four rebounds while Rylee Oceguera had five points.

The Lady Cardinals can clinch the fourth-place playoff berth with a win at Lumberton Tuesday.

The Lady Bears finished with a 32-29 rebounding edge. Bridge City had 14 turnovers while LC-M had 12. The Lady Cardinals went to the free-throw line just three times, making one.

The Lady Bears will close the regular season at home Tuesday against WO-S.