Basketball season came to an end for the Bearcats Monday in the opening round of the District 3A-4 tournament being held in Cedarville.
The Bearcats had closed the regular season with a furious comeback at Paris that saw a 20-point deficit twice trimmed to before suffering a 61-58 loss.
The Bearcats initially survived a fast start by Cossatot River in Cedarville Monday but the Eagles would hit 10 3s in the first three quarters and coast to a 70-54 win.
The Eagles jumped to a 7-0 lead in less than three minutes and led 12-4 with 2:52 to go in the opening quarter.
Colter Fisher shot the Bearcats into a 12-12 tie by the 1:34 mark of the quarter and he had scored 10 points already.
By the close of the quarter the Eagles pulled out to a 17-12 lead after a third 3 pointer of the quarter.
A London Lee basket made it 17-14 but Cossatot hit from beyond the arc four more times in the second quarter, eventually opening a 28-16 lead midway through the quarter.
The Bearcats battled back to within 34-26 before the Eagles added a couple of free throws to lead by 10 at the half.
Cossatot’s 3 point proficiency did not cool with the intermission. Three more 3s during a 12-0 run in the third quarter saw the lead grow to 20.
Cossatot led by as many as 24 before settling for a 58-35 lead through three quarters.
Fisher hit another 3 in the final quarter for the Bearcats and led the way with 14 points. Mason Goers scored 12, and C.J. Johnson 11. Escobedo, who scored nine, and Johnson both had eight rebounds.
At Paris Friday night Fisher was on fire early with four 3s in the first quarter helping the Bearcats build a 19-14 lead with 1:56 left in the quarter.
But the Bearcats would not score from anywhere but the free throw line for over 11 game minutes.
Paris built a 9-point lead but Raiden Ferguson hit one free throw and Fisher hit four straight to make it 28-24 before the Eagles ran off eight more straight through the 6:52 mark of the third quarter and led 36-24.
Paris would eventually build a lead of 47-27 with 2:33 to play in the third quarter and although the Bearcats cut it to 14 it was back to 19, 52-33, by the end of the quarter.
London Lee started a fourth quarter barrage that saw the lead trimmed to four in about two and a half minutes.
Lee’s second 3 in the quarter made it 53-49 with about five and a half minutes left. His third made it 57-56 in the final minute.
Lee also had an assist on a Goers (shown) basket that cut it to 59-58 but after a pair of Paris free throws, the Bearcats (11-15) were unable to get a shot to try to force overtime.
For the year the Bearcats were led in scoring by Fisher with 298, an average of 11.5 per game.
Both Escobedo and Johnson scored 223 points, but Escobedo managed his in two fewer games and averaged 9.3 compared to 8.6.
Ferguson scored just two fewer than Johnson and Escobedo and averaged 8.5, and Goers, after missing the first four games due to football obligations, averaged 7.7.
With four players topping 100, the leading rebounder was Escobedo with 5.3 per game followed by Fisher at 4.9, Ferguson at 4.1, and Johnson at 3.8. Goers actually finished at four rebounds per game as well.
