Bridge City basketball holding second place in district standings

With two weeks remaining in the district basketball schedules every game is of increased importance. The boys basketball teams at Bridge City, West Orange-Stark, Little Cypress Mauriceville, and Orangefield are trying to earn spots to the post season which starts in the middle of February.

In District 19-4A Silsbee is undefeated in first place. Bridge City, Little Cypress Mauriceville, and West Orange-Stark will need to finish strong to insure a berth in the playoffs by ranking among the top four teams in that district.

The Bridge City Cardinals are in the best position of the three local teams after splitting their two games last week. Bridge City lost 104-53 to the Silsbee Tigers on Tuesday, January 23. Three Cardinals did reach double figures with Aaden Bush scoring 12 points, Lincoln Breaux totaling 11 points, and Aiden Gutierrez getting 10 points.

On Friday night Bridge City played the Bears at Little Cypress Mauriceville High School in the Dr. Pauline Colburn Hargrove Gymnasium. The Cardinals won 51-38 to raise their district record to 6-2 putting them in second place of the district standings.

Bridge City Coach Randall Robertson was very happy with the win at LCM. "Any time you go on the road and get a win in this district that's a big win for us. We're trying to take it one game at a time like we did the first half of district. We've just got to prepare for the next game every time. We get a much needed break before we've got Vidor at home next Friday (February 2)," Robertson indicated.

LCM jumped out 4-0 in the opening minutes. Jonah Fuller popped a three pointer to give the Bears a five point lead 7-2 in the first quarter.

The Cardinals took their first lead of the game 10-8 with 42 seconds remaining in the quarter on a three point shot from Aiden Gutierrez. Bryson Price of the Bears tied the game before Gutierrez hit another three to give Bridge City the lead 13-10 after one quarter.

The second quarter began with Aaden Bush popping a three for Bridge City before Gutierrez made a field goal and two free throws to increase the Cardinal advantage to double digits 20-10. Little Cypress Mauriceville would never get any closer the remainder of the game.

Bush scored ten in the third quarter to finish as the leading scorer with 17 points which featured his making four shots from beyond the three point arc. Gutierrez got 14 points. Bryce Linder and Rayburn Hebert came off the Bridge City bench to put in seven points with two field goals by Linder and a three from Hebert.

Alantheon Winn scored 14 points to lead LCM scoring. Price had 9 points for the Bears. The loss brought Little Cypress Mauriceville's record to 2-5 in district.

West Orange-Stark is still in the thick of the playoff picture despite dropping three of its last five district games. The Mustangs are in third place at 5-3 in the district a game ahead of Lumberton.

A key road victory was achieved by West Orange-Stark on Tuesday, January 23, at Vidor as the Mustangs edged the Pirates 65-64 by just one point. The result was much closer than when the two teams met at West Orange-Stark in a game won by the Mustangs 67-55 to open the district schedule.

Leading the Mustangs in scoring on Tuesday was Andrew Cooper with 22 points. Jamikael Davis and Ja'Vaughnte Richard also scored in double digits with 14 and 11 points respectfully.

Friday, January 26, was a special date as West Orange-Stark played its first game in the new West Orange-Cove Event Center. A fire in the stands of the neighboring Dan R. Hooks Stadium during July allowed smoke to infiltrate into the event center causing its opening to be delayed until last week.

The Mustangs played the Lumberton Raiders and lost the game 61-49. It was eight fewer points than WOS has scored in any district game this season.

The Orangefield Bobcats with a record of 8-1 in District 22-3A are in second place a game behind first place Kountze with five games remaining. The Bobcats won both of their games last week.

The second half of the district started on Tuesday, January 23, at Orangefield where the Bobcats beat the Buna Cougars 55-24. It was a slow start for Orangefield as the game was tied 9-9 after the first quarter.

Things got rolling for the Bobcats at the start of the second period when Zane Wrinkle wrinkled the twine with a long shot that gave them a three point lead. Orangefield played some defense too holding Buna scoreless for over six minutes to begin the second to take a 29-12 lead at the half.

The Bobcats had another dominating eight minutes in the third quarter outscoring the Cougars 15-7 to open up a 25 point advantage. The fourth quarter saw Orangefield double up Buna again to finish off the thirty-one point triumph.

Jaden Scales of the Bobcats was the leading scorer with 21 points while assisting on 4 other baskets. Wrinkle had 13 points and 5 rebounds. Griffin Thomas tallied 8 points and grabbed 4 rebounds for Orangefield.

Bryan Whitmire the coach of the Bobcats credited defense by Orangefield as the key to the big victory. Whitmire commented, "The kids really locked in and played hard defensively. Our rotation was really good. I thought it started with us getting stops down there on the defensive end, and then we were able to get some shots to go down that ultimately put us on a couple of big runs that put some distance between us and them. The Cougars are a good team and they played really hard, and I thought we were fortunate to put ourselves in position to make a couple runs."

The Bobcats followed that blow out with a similar lopsided win at Hardin on Friday, January 26. Orangefield blasted the Hornets 69-39.

Kadyn Rucker pulled off a rare double double with 14 points and 14 rebounds for Orangefield. Jaden Scales topped the Bobcats in scoring with 25 points and made passes that led to five other baskets by teammates. Kane Smith reached the magic figure of 20 points while also grabbing 5 rebounds.

The road trip continued for Orangefield on Tuesday, January 30, at Warren. The Bobcats next game will be Friday, February 2, in Winnie against the East Chambers Buccaneers.