BEARCATS WIN DISTRICT TOURNAMENT

In a span of less than a minute in the second quarter of Friday’s District 3A-4 championship game in Paris, the Booneville Bearcats went from leading by one to leading by 11.

They went on to beat Cossatot River 80-67 to claim the 3A-4 tournament title and the league’s number one seed in next week’s Class 3A Region 1 tournament in West Fork.

They did so with Jace Washburn scoring 26 points and grabbing nine rebounds, Colter Fisher scoring 21, C.J. Johnson scoring 14 with seven assists and four steals, and Noah Harrel scoring 13.

Cossatot River got a basket from inside the paint to make it 27-26 with 5:14 to play in the first half.

On the Bearcats’ next possession Harrel hit a 3 – one of his three on the night – and it was 30-26 with 5:00 to play in the half.

Johnson drew a foul with 4:36 left in the half and although he missed both free throws, after an offensive rebound Johnson hit a 3 and it was 33-26.

A pair of steals before the Eagles took another shot turned into layups by Johnson and Harrel and it was 37-26 with 4:06 left in the half and Cossatot took a time out.

The Bearcats went on to build a lead as big as 21, see it whittled to eight with 2:23 left, then hold the Eagles scoreless the rest of the way to win it 80-67.

After the Eagle time out midway through the second quarter the Bearcats didn’t score for almost two and a half minutes, by which time Cossatot had cut it to 37-31.

A Raiden Ferguson basket and two by Washburn (shown) more than offset another Eagle basket and it was 43-33 at the intermission.

That gave Washburn 10 points. The sophomore would put on a show in the third quarter.

His first second half points came on a 3 that was sandwiched between a pair of Eagle scores and it was 46-37 with 5:57 left in the quarter.

After a Fisher basket Washburn hit two more 3s in a span of 22 seconds and when Johnson scored with 4:07 left in the quarter it was 56-37 and Cossatot wanted another time out.

Over the next two minutes Cossatot trimmed the lead to 12 but Fisher scored then fed Washburn for another basket and it was a16-point cushion again.

The lead was 19 after a conventional three point play by Ferguson with 1:07 to go in the quarter and would reach 21 at 69-48 when Dakota Mattson was fouled on a layup and a technical foul was also called.

Mattson hit both of his free throws and Fisher hit the technical free throws.

An Eagle 3 closed the third quarter scoring and another basket after an offensive rebound following two missed free throws got Cossatot within 69-53 with 6:44 to play.

Washburn scored inside to make it 71-53 with 6:31 left but the Bearcats wouldn’t score again for three and a half minutes.

Cossatot meanwhile got a pair of free throws and two 3s and it was 71-61.

Fisher hit both ends of a one-and-one with three minutes left but another Eagle 3 cut it to a single digit advantage.

After Johnson cashed in both ends of a one-and-one with 2:40 left, yet another Cossatot 3 made it 73-67 with 2:23 remaining.

From there the Bearcats burned time and Cossatot misfired until Fisher drove inside for two, and a Washburn free throw made it 78-67 with 54.9 ticks left.

Fisher hit the clincher with 35 seconds to go taking a three-quarters length of the floor pass from Johson and laying it in.

As the top seed in the Class 3A Region 1 tournament the Bearcats will play Elkins, the four seed from the 3A-1. Tipoff is at 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday.