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Cardinals hold back Bobcats, 61-58
ORANGEFIELD — It looked as if Bridge City was going to cruise to an easy District 21-3A win over the Orangefield Bobcats Tuesday night.
Instead, the Cardinals were breathing a sigh of relief as they left Bobcat Gym with a nailbiting 61-58 win.
It was Bridge City’s first 21-3A win over the Bobcats since the 2005-06 campaign and it was far from easy.
Leading 48-28 with a little more than five minutes remaining in the third period, the Cardinals (12-15, 1-3) saw the gritty Bobcats (15-13, 1-3) rally all the way back to withing 59-58 with 27 seconds left.
However, the Cardinals held on when they watched Bobcat Bryden Smith’s three-point shot attempt rattle around the rim at the buzzer.
Both teams had several peaks and valleys throughout the Orange County rival game.
However, the Bobcats simply had no answer for Cardinal forward Nate McAnelly, who threw in a game-high 24 points while hauling down 17 rebounds.
The Cardinals also received a big effort from feisty point guard Zach Heinze, who finished with 19 points. Tanner Girouard had nine points and eight boards for the Cardinals while Tanner Hogan added seven points and five rebounds.
The Bobcats were definitely playing shorthanded. They were without the services of leading scorer and rebounder Zach Hayes along with post Luke Gunstream, who both sat out due to injury.
Orangefield, despite their two missing seniors, made an amazing comeback.
The Bobcats forced the Cardinals into 14 of their 22 turnovers to get back in the game in a furious fourth quarter that the Cardinals surely felt lasted way too long.
Smith buried two three-point bombs in the final eight minutes and Garrett Granger had five points in the fourth as well as the Bobcats almost pulled it out, going on an 18-2 run to get to within four with 4:13 left.
A nice shot inside by Dylan Cole got the Bobcats to within 59-58 with 1:26 left but the Cardinals held on.
Granger led the Bobcats with 14 points. Christian Holland played well for Orangefield, scoring 12 points while snaring seven rebounds. Derrick Evans had 10 points. Julian Morgan had six points and seven rebounds and Cole finished with six points and six boards.
Bridge City finished with a slight 37-33 rebounding edge. Orangefield finished with 11 turnovers but free throws killed the Bobcats, who went 0-for-6. The Cardinals went 9-of-16 from the charity stripe.
The Bobcats led early 15-10 only to see the Cardinals go on a 15-0 run as Bridge City led 37-24 at intermission.
McAnelly had the hot hand early, scoring 16 points while grabbing 10 rebounds in the first 16 minutes. Heinze had 11 first-half points, burying three three-pointers in the process.
Evans had 10 first-half points for the Bobcats, eight of them coming in the first period.
Bridge City will look for its second straight 21-3A win when they play host to Hamshire-Fannett Friday while the Bobcats visit Orange County rival West Orange-Stark.
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