District Basketball Games Start This Week

The start of December means it is just a few days before the start of the district basketball games for local high school teams. Most of the girls' teams begin their district games on Friday and the boys will start in a week.

The Orangefield Lady Bobcats in Class 3A actually began their district schedule on Tuesday of this week against the Lionettes at Kountze. The Lady Bobcats play their first district home game against the Kirbyville Lady Wildcats on Friday.

Leading up to the district season Orangefield played in the West Tournament near Waco. The Lady Bobcats dropped their first two games in the tournament 53-49 to Rice and 43-32 to the host school West on Thursday, December 1.

Friday morning Orangefield won 63-26 over Cameron Yoe. The leading scorer for the Lady Bobcats was Harleigh Rawls with 19 points. Charlee Sanchez scored 10 and Brooklyn Waggoner tallied 9 in the win. Sterling Richard played strong defense for Orangefield and chipped in with 4 points.

Later on Friday the Lady Bobcats continued their strong play clobbering the Coolidge Yellow Jackets 53-22 for their second win of the day. Rawls was once again the high scorer with 19 points to go with her 4 steals and 4 rebounds. Greenlea Oldham matched Harleigh with 4 rebounds and scored 8 points.

Orangefield had scoring contributions from Bri Moore getting 7 points and Steeyle Franklin with 6 points. The Lady Bobcats got strong rebounding from Alexus Maddox who pulled down 5 boards, Sterling Richard and Jaylynn Alfaro who grabbed 4 each, and Moore with 3 rebounds. Franklin had 8 steals and 2 assists to help the team.

The Class 4A district which includes the Bridge City Lady Cardinals, the Little Cypress-Mauriceville Lady Bears, and the West Orange-Stark Lady Mustangs starts district action on Friday, December 9. The opening games on Friday include the Lady Bears and the Lady Mustangs playing at the Dr. Pauline Colburn Hargrove Gymnasium on the LCM High School campus.

The LCM Lady Bears won a monumental game for Coach Eddie Michalko on Thursday, December 1, at the Evadale Tournament. The Lady Bears defeated the Legacy Lady Warriors 42-30. The victory gave Michalko 1,100 wins during his illustrious coaching career in Texas and Louisiana.

The Lady Bears defeated Kirbyville 51-29 also on Thursday and just got by the Bridge City Lady Cardinals 24-20 on Friday to advance to the tournament's championship game against the host team Evadale Lady Rebels on Saturday. Evadale defeated LCM 40-32 to win the tournament. It was only the second loss of the season for Little Cypress-Mauriceville.

The Lady Mustangs also played in the Evadale Tournament. WOS dropped its opening game to the eventual champion Evadale in a tight one 40-38 on Thursday. West Orange-Stark lost 34-13 later to Kountze. All of the Lady Mustangs played hard with Carlysia Simien being the leading scorer for West Orange-Stark in the tournament.

Coach Jaden Spell was still pleased with the progress being made by the Lady Mustangs. "We performed very well. We're taking steps in the right direction. Our key point is to stay consistent, to play the same game every time we go out there, and to continue to improve each time we play," Spell emphasized.

The opening game of district on Friday will be a great opening test for the Lady Mustangs. Coach Spell elaborated, "It's going to be a great way to open district for us. It's a really big game regardless of the outcome. It will really test us in the environment and the situation of LCM. I'm hoping that we can go out and play our best game."

Before losing to LCM on Friday the Lady Cardinals split their first two games at Evadale. Bridge City was edged by Kirbyville 28-27 in its first game on Thursday before defeating Legacy Christian 40-30. The Lady Cardinals play their opening game of district at home on Friday, December 9, against the Jasper Lady Bulldogs.

The boys played tournaments this past week as well. The Orangefield Bobcats participated in the Nederland tournament over the past weekend.

Orangefield defeated the Kelly Bulldogs on Thursday 65-64 using a late three-point basket from freshman Jaden Scales for the win. Peter Ragusa led the Bobcats in scoring with 18 points and rebounds with nine. Koen Maddox and Cameron Dischler finished in double figures with 11 and 10 points respectfully.

The Bobcats next won 67-59 over the Lumberton Raiders on Friday. Ragusa with 18 points again was top scorer ahead of Scales with 15 and Zane Wrinkle's 11 points. Dischler was the top rebounder for Orangefield with 6 and steals with 3 to go with his 9 points in the game.

Saturday morning the Nederland Bulldogs rallied in the second half to beat Orangefield 67-59 to earn the right to play in the tournament finals. For the third straight game Ragusa was the Bobcats' leading scorer with 18 points. Scales scored 13 points. Wrinkle also finished in double figures with 11 and had 7 rebounds to lead Orangefield in that category.

In the third place game played later on Saturday Orangefield faced the Hamshire-Fannett Longhorns. The game went down to the wire with the Longhorns pulling it out 53-52 over the Bobcats. Ragusa upped his scoring from the previous games finishing with a team leading 21 points. Wrinkle scored 12 and Scales added 11 for the Bobcats.

Orangefield was 6-3 on the season after the Nederland tournament. The Bobcats host a tournament at the Orangefield gym Thursday through Saturday. Their first district game will be Tuesday, December 13, at home against the Buna Cougars.

The Little Cypress-Mauriceville Bears played in the Aransas Pass Best of the Bay tournament over the weekend. On Thursday the Bears stopped Sinton 68-58 in their opening game. Ben Elliott was the leading scorer for LCM with 19 points and had 10 rebounds. Alantheon Winn scored 11 points while grabbing 12 rebounds.

Later that day the Bears ripped Robstown 81-26 with four of them scoring in double figures. Elliott again topped LCM with 22, followed by Winn with 16, and Da'Marion Morris and Noah Fuller with 12 apiece.

The Bears dropped their game to the Hardin-Jefferson Hawks 62-56 on Friday. Winn and Elliott both tallied 19 points in the loss.

On Saturday LCM won 57-41 defeating Aransas Pass to capture the third place trophy in the tournament. Winn led the Bears with 17 points followed by Elliott who had 16 points. Morris was credited with 12 assists in the game and scored 6 points. Winn, Elliott, and Morris were all named to the All-Tournament Team for Little Cypress-Mauriceville.

The Bears are 9-2 on the season. This weekend LCM plays in the Hardin-Jefferson Hoops Marathon. The first district game for Little Cypress-Mauriceville will be Tuesday, January 3, at home against the Bridge City Cardinals.

Like the girls from Bridge City the boys of Bridge City were playing in a tournament at Evadale over the first weekend in December. The Cardinals started slowly losing both of their games on Thursday 64-42 to East Chambers and 59-52 to Jasper.

On Friday Bridge City beat the Kirbyville Wildcats 68-41 before falling 63-54 to Tarkington. The Cardinals easily defeated the hometown Evadale Rebels 57-25 on Saturday with Aaden Bush putting in 16 points and Walker Britten totaling 15 points. The win earned Bridge City a spot in the third place game.

The contest was a rematch as the Cardinals faced the Tarkington Longhorns for the second time in the tournament. Bridge City won a thriller 46-43 in overtime to grab third place in the tournament. Bush was a star for the Cardinals with 11 points which included a three-pointer that forced the overtime. Britten who was selected to the all-tournament team was the leading scorer for the Cardinals with 17 points.

Bridge City will play in the Orangefield Tournament which is scheduled for this weekend Thursday through Saturday. The Cardinals play their opening game of district on Friday, December 16, at home against the Silsbee Tigers.

The West Orange-Stark Mustangs took part in the YMBL Tournament in Beaumont over the weekend. The Mustangs lost their opening game 77-43 to Aldine on Thursday. The next day Darren Anderson of WOS scored 14 points but it was not enough as the Mustangs fell 68-57 to Angleton. The results were no better on Saturday with West Orange-Stark losing to Dallas Madison and Houston's Grace Christian Academy.

A non-district game is scheduled for next Tuesday at Sour Lake against the Hardin-Jefferson Hawks. West Orange-Stark plays cross-county rival the Vidor Pirates to open the district on Friday, December 16, at Vidor.