NO SUBSTITUTIONS BUT WIN MADE TO ORDER FOR LADY BEARCATS

If you were to locate a box score for the Booneville Lady Bearcats from Tuesday night’s game in Paris you would see only five names.

The five starters – Makinley Ensey, Angie Brown, Tempi Terry, Baylee Parnell, and Haylee Taylor – never left the game so they accounted for every statistic in a 46-37 Conference 3A-4 win.

They five got a break only during time outs, quarter breaks, and halftime – not simply for a breather, not for foul trouble, not for instruction. If the clock was running, they were on the floor.

The Lady Bearcats and Paris had played a double overtime game in Booneville in January and would start Tuesday’s game by battling through three lead changes and a tie score through one quarter with Paris breaking breaking the tie at 10 for a 12-10 lead through the first quarter.

Taylor hit her second 3 of the night to swing the lead back to the Lady Bearcats and Parnell hit one with 6:23 to go in the half to make it 16-12.

After Paris pulled even at 16-16 with 4:41 left in the half a free throw by Terry broke the tie and the Lady Bearcats led the rest of the way.

Ensey banked in a 3 and Parnell added a basket for a 22-16 lead and Terry countered a Paris 3 in the final minute of the half with a basket for a 24-19 lead at the intermission.

Paris cut it to 24-22 1:10 into the second half but Parnell hit a 3 and Terry scored twice to make it a 9-point lead at 31-22 and force a time out.

Paris scored out of the stoppage but a basket by Parnell and a 3 by Taylor pushed the Lady Bearcat lead to 12 at 36-24 with 1:39 left in the quarter.

Paris got a 3 and a free throw in the final 12 seconds of the quarter and another basket just 41 seconds into the final quarter had it cut the largest lead of the night in half at 36-30.

Taylor answered with a 3 and after Paris scored the next 5 she hit her fifth 3 of the night and it was 42-34 with 2:53 left.

The Lady Bearcats then played defense and used the shot clock and Terry, who accounted for every Lady Bearcat free throw, hit four straight over the final 31.1 to extend the lead back to 11 before a late basket set the final margin.

With the singles, Terry led the Lady Bearcats with 16 points, topping Taylor’s 15 and the 12 by Parnell.

Bearcats

After trailing 17-7 with 29.2 second to go in the opening quarter the Bearcats were able draw even by the 5:16 mark of the second quarter when Dakota Mattson hit one of two free throws.

An Aiden Carter basket retied the game at 20-20 with 4:43 to play in the half but Paris scored the next five points and led the rest of the way, through it was usually close, including the 61-59 final.

Including the tie at 20, Carter would score 8 straight for his team, twice getting the Bearcats within two before a late basket gave Paris a 30-26 halftime lead.

Jace Washburn started the second half with a 3 that cut it to 30-29 but Paris would open a 39-31 lead with 2:38 to play in the quarter.

The Bearcats got it back to 39-36 on a free throw and a 3 from Noah Harrel and a free throw from Carter.

Paris turned a 42-37 lead to start the final quarter into one of 10 again at 47-37 with 7:08 left, and after answering a 3 from Harrel to make it 49-40 relied on the free throw to put it away, hitting 12-of-16 over the final 4:56, including their final eight attempts.

Still, after the free throws the Bearcats got 3s from Mattson and Wesley Fonseca and a pair of conventional three-point plays from Harrel to eventually cut it to 2 with 3.7 seconds left.

Harrel led the Bearcats with 18 points while Carter contributed 11 and Washburn and Fonseca 10 each.

The Bearcats and Lady Bearcats are scheduled to make up games in Lamar on Thursday and close the regular season on the road at Lavaca on Friday.