With 3:44 left in the first half Friday night Leigh Swint hit a 3 to give the Booneville Lady Bearcats a 17-16 lead. It would be their last in a 45-33 loss to Cossatot River.
The loss was the first in Conference 3A-4 play this season and snapped a streak of 30 straight regular season conference game wins dating back to the end of the 2020-2021 season.
The Lady Bearcats are already assured of a Class 3A Region 1 berth and will be the two seed in this week’s district tournament due to the point differential of the two games with Cossatot — both the Lady Bearcats and Lady Eagles finished 13-1 but the Lady Bearcats beat Cossatot by eight and Cossatot won by more than the maximum possible 10.
The Lady Bearcats will play at 7 p.m. Thursday against either third seeded Paris, or the winner of the Monday game between sixth seeded Two Rivers and seventh seeded Cedarville.
After Swint’s 3 the Lady Bearcats did not score again in the half and Cossatot River ran off eight straight points to lead 24-17.
The Lady Eagles made it a 10-0 run with a bucket before the Lady Bearcats made a push.
Lexi Franklin hit a 3, the sixth but last by the Lady Bearcats, to make it 26-20 but Cossatot ran the lead to 30-20 before a Linley Garrett free throw, a Franklin steal and basket, and another steal and Swint basket — all in 11 seconds — made it 30-25.
But that would be as close as it would get. Cossatot scored the next eight points and led by no less than 10 the rest of the way.
Swint (shown) finished with a team high 11 points and Franklin scored 10. Carah Miller had hit three first quarter 3s, the last giving the Lady Bearcats a 12-10 lead — and finished with nine points.
Garrett had nine rebounds, Franklin had four assists, and Swint had five steals.
LADY BEARCATS SUFFER LOSS AT COSSATOT RIVER
