The West Orange-Stark Mustangs and the Bridge City Cardinals split a pair of close games in district play and finished tied for third place. Friday night the two teams played a game to determine playoff seeds at Orangefield’s Bobcats Gym. The Mustangs never trailed and eventually stampeded the Cardinals 69-42 to take third place in District 22-4A.
The first basket was made by Bretlin White of WO-S, but two free throws by Justyn Romero tied the game at two. After the Mustangs went up by three, 5-2, the Cardinals tied it on a bucket and a free-throw by Dane Piper. That is when West Orange-Stark went on a run during which the Mustangs outscored Bridge City 15-4 through the remainder of the first quarter. K.J. Miller was the top scorer with six points for the Mustangs in the opening stanza.
The double digit lead lasted most of the second quarter for the Mustangs extending to as big as a 17-point margin. White hit a trey and a deuce in the period. The Cardinals rallied just before the half to get the deficit under ten. Max Baker sank a free throw and nailed a three-point basket late from the right corner to make the score 29-20 after two.
Coming out of the locker room to start the third period West Orange-Stark reeled off the first 10 points that pretty much put the game in the Mustangs’ pockets. Cory Skinner was scoreless in the first half, but answered with seven points in the third including a three-pointer. White also tacked on seven with his second three-ball and two field goals. The Mustangs’ defense forced seven turnovers by the Cardinals in the quarter. After three quarters WO-S led 51-29.
The fourth quarter was just a formality as both teams played a lot of substitutes. Jalen Mathews sank two three-pointers and was fouled while attempting another three. He proceeded to then sink all three free throws. The Mustangs stretched the advantage to over 30 before Bridge City was able to close the final gap to 27 points.
Eight Mustangs registered on the score sheet. White had top scoring honors with 17, followed by Mathews with 14, and B’Jan Arvie with 10. The Mustangs only shot ten free throws, but made seven of them.
Piper was the only Cardinal in double figures as he matched White for higher scorer with 17. Romero tallied 9 points and Hunter Wiegreffe contributed six for Bridge City.
With the win West Orange-Stark earns the third seed in District 22-4A and will play the winner of the seed game in District 21-4A on Saturday between Lufkin Hudson and Diboll. The loser of the Hudson and Diboll game will play Little Cypress-Mauriceville in the first round of the playoffs. Bridge City goes into the playoffs as the fourth seed in the district and will play 21-4A district champs Shepherd next week. Silsbee is the district champs in 22-4A and will play Huntington which lost Friday night to Lufkin Hudson in a seed game.
WOS 20 9 22 18- 69
BC 9 11 9 13- 42
Deweyville will have a seed game Saturday night at 7pm against West Hardin in Spurger.
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Last night Silsbee Lady Tigers beat Hardin-Jefferson 66-51 to advance to the third round.
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