Basketball playoffs update

The final regular season basketball games were played by the four local boys teams on Tuesday, February 13. Three of those teams have more basketball to play as they will be going to the post season.

West Orange-Stark captured a hard fought game with Bridge City at the West Orange-Cove Event Center. The Mustangs defeated the Cardinals 60-53 despite being outscored in three of the four quarters during the contest.

The difference for the Mustangs was the third quarter when they stampeded over the Cardinals 30-11 turning a five point deficit at the half into a fourteen point advantage 50-36 with eight minutes to play. Bridge City made it interesting shaving that lead to four points during the final quarter before West Orange-Stark secured the seven point victory.

Eight different Mustangs registered points led by Joshua Holifield with 14 and Ja'Vaughnte Richard who scored 12 points. Aaden Bush of the Cardinals topped all scorers in the game with 17 points followed by his teammate Aiden Gutierrez with 15 points.

The game was Senior Night for West Orange-Stark. Seniors Chadrick Lee, Ja'Vaughnte Richard, Andrew Cooper, and Joshua Holifield were honored prior to the game.

The Bridge City Cardinals at 9-3 are the second place seed in District 19-4A, and played Livingston on Tuesday, February 20, in the first round of the playoffs. The West Orange-Stark Mustangs finished third in the district with a record of 8-4, and faced Huffman on Tuesday to open the post season.

Little Cypress Mauriceville finished its season losing 78-41 to the district champion Silsbee Tigers on Tuesday, February 13. Alantheon Winn of the Bears scored 26 points to close out his outstanding career at LCM.

The Orangefield Bobcats are going to the post season achieving their first district championship in basketball since 1954. Orangefield played the Woodville Eagles in the Bi-District Round of the playoffs on Tuesday, February 20.

The Bobcats finished the regular season with a 13-1 record in District 22-3A which earned them a first place tie with the Kountze Lions. Overall Orangefield is 31-5 on the season.

Orangefield split its two games last week winning 72-41 against Kirbyville on Tuesday, February 13, in the district finale before losing to Kountze in a seeding game 62-53 on Friday. The loss to Kountze places the Bobcats as the second seed in the district for the playoffs.

Jaden Scales of the Bobcats scored 27 points with 4 assists in the win over Kirbyville. Griffin Thomas played well scoring 19 points while grabbing 6 rebounds. Zane Wrinkle pulled off a rare triple double with 12 points, 13 rebounds, and 12 assists.

Wrinkle topped the Bobcats in scoring against Kountze with 19 points. Thomas also finished in double figures for that game with 14 points.

The final girls basketball team from Orange County was eliminated from the state playoffs on Friday, February 16. The Orangefield Lady Bobcats lost to Anderson Shiro 63-36. The Lady Bobcats concluded their season with a record of 32-6.

In the game Steeley Franklin and Mikayla Locke both scored 8 points for Orangefield. The Lady Bobcats twin posts of Greenlea Oldham put in 8 points while leading them in rebounds with 10 and Rebecca Durbin had 6 points and 5 rebounds.