BEARCATS POUND CEDARVILLE SATURDAY

On Friday night anyone not named Dax Goff struggled to score for the Booneville Bearcats. On Saturday night Cedarville struggled to stop any Bearcat, including Goff, from scoring.

Friday night, with Goff scoring 20 points and pulling down 13 rebounds, the Bearcats (7-4, 2-1 Conference 3A-1) trimmed a once 19-point deficit to one in Paris but could not complete the comeback in a 47-44 loss.

On Saturday it was smooth sailing as Goff was done midway through the third quarter with another team-high 11 points and the Bearcats cruised to a 57-27 win over Cedarville.

The later was the home debut for Goff, who has not played basketball since he was a freshman. He added a team best seven rebounds and five steals Saturday night.

On Saturday Goff scored the first four points of the night in the first 35 seconds and after a Dakota Mattson basket Cedarville took a time out.

Goff scored again before the Pirates got a 3 but it was 17-4 through a quarter and that was as close as it would get.

It was the same 13-point margin at 19-6 when Nate Smith hit a 3 and the Bearcats would eventually build a 20-point first half lead.

Smith would be the second Bearcat in double figures, finishing with 10 points.

Cody Sum’s first points of the night made it 31-11 with 1:42 left in the half and Jace Washburn scored both from the field and the free throw line to make it 34-14 at halftime.

Goff’s 11th point came at the free throw line and made it 41-14 with 4:28 left in the third quarter and he exited for the night a minute later.

Aiden Carter had a chance to make ta 30-point lead but the back end of a conventional three point pay was waived off due to a lane violation and the Pirates were able to close within 47-25 be the end of the third quarter.

Carter, on his way to an eight point night, would score the basket that kicked in the sportsmanship rule at 55-25 with 4:29 remaining.

Both teams would manage just two points the rest of the way with the Bearcats getting theirs from Colt Cobb, who scored four on the night.

At Paris Friday the Bearcats were down 9-0 within three minutes and never fully recovered.

With Goff (shown) scoring eight of his team’s first 10 points the Bearcats did climb within 14-10 with 5:57 to play in the first half, but a Smith basket would be the only points for the rest of the half and Paris opened a lead of 27-12.

With 40 seconds to play in the third quarter Paris led by a seemingly safe 39-20.

Just under 10 seconds later Washburn scored but was unable to convert the old-fashioned three point play and it was 39-22 so start the final quarter.

A free throw by Goff made it a 16-point game but Paris got it back to 18 before a furious run of two Sum scores, one by Goff, another by Colter Fisher – who had not played for three quarters – and another by Goff cut it to 41-33.

Two technical free throws made it double digits, starting a run of free throw exclusive scoring for the Eagles.

Meanwhile Goff kept working with a couple of buckets and with free throws by Noah Harrel, Sum, and Goff, then a 3 by Harrel it was 45-44 with 21 seconds left.

Two more free throws by Paris with 15.6 seconds to play made it 47-44 and a 3 attempt to force overtime would be off the mark.

The Bearcats will next play at Two Rivers on Tuesday.