BEARCATS CLAIM THREE SEED IN CONFERENCE TOURNAMENT

The Booneville Bearcats throttled Paris 60-27 Saturday night to wrap up the three seed in the Conference 3A-4 tournament that is being held in Hackett starting Monday.

The Bearcats (15-7) finish tied with Cossatot River but held the tie breaker having beaten the Eagles by 10 in Cove and losing at Bearcat Gym by seven on Friday night.

The Bearcats will play at 8:30 Tuesday against the winner of Monday’s game between sixth seeded Paris and seventh seeded Two Rivers.

Paris

The Bearcats scored the first 12 points of the night, 10 coming from Cody Sum and Dakota Mattson (shown), and were never seriously threatened.

Sum and Mattson would both reach double figures, scoring 14 and 10 respectively.

Paris trimmed the deficit to eight with a free throw at the 7:36 mark of the second quarter but a Dax Goff free throw and a basket by Noah Harrel had the advantage back to double digits, where it would stay, and continue to grow.

Harrel scored eight points while the lead was swelling to 27-8 but the Eagles would get it back to 10 at 28-18, only to have Harrel complete his 11 point quarter to make it 30-18 at the half.

Harrel would lead the way with 20 on the night, giving him 55 for the three game week, matching his total from three games last week.

The game really got out of hand in the third quarter when the Bearcats went on a 13-0 run to open a 25 point lead at 46-21 on another Harrel basket.

The lead would reach 31 as Harrel again scored twice in an 18 second span before settling in at the sportsmanship rule 30 through the end of the quarter.

The final quarter saw freshman Reed Brackney score from the line, giving him points in both games he has played, and Wesley Fonseca score six points.

Cossatot River

There final of five fourth quarter lead changes gave Cossatot River the edge on the way to spoiling the Bearcats’ senior night with a 75-68 win Friday.

Through three quarters the score was tied at 50. It was tied again at 52 and the Bearcats led 54-52 on a Dakota Mattson bucket but one of Cossatot’s nine 3s put the Eagles in front, 55-54.

Cossatot continued to lead until Dax Goff hit a 3 to give the Bearcats a 61-60 lead with 4:20 remaining.

But the Eagles answered 59 seconds later and scored again a possession later to lead by three.

The Bearcats got it back to 64-63 on a basket by Colter Fisher and were within 67-65 on one by Mattson with 1:18 to go but Cossatot River hit eight of 10 free throws from that point.

Goff finished the night with 21 points and was one of four Bearcats in double figures. Noah Harel scored 17, Fisher 14, and Cody Sum 10.

Sum and Goff accounted for the first 13 points of the night for the Bearcats with a pair of Sum free throws giving the Bearcats a lead at 4-3. It was a lead they held until the third quarter.

The Bearcats would lead by as many as nine in the second quarter as Goff scored 16 before halftime but Cossatot got trimmed the deficit to four on their fifth 3 of the first half just before the break.

When Harrel scored with 5:20 left in the third quarter it was an eight point cushion at 41-33 but an inside basket and three straight 3s gave the Eagles the lead, 44-41.

The Bearcats scored the next seven with Goff hitting two free throws, Sum scoring on an assist from Goff, and Harrel hitting a 3 to make it 48-44.

Cossatot scored the next six with four coming at the free throw line before a pair of Aiden Carter free throws tied it at 50 through three quarters.