ORANGEFIELD — It may not be exactly the way they wanted to earn it but the Orangefield Lady Bobcats captured the first-seed playoff spot out of District 22-4A Friday night by taking down the Little Cypress-Mauriceville Lady Bears 62-48 at Bobcat Gym.

The Lady Bobcats improved to 8-1 in 22-4A play. The Silsbee Lady Tigers, who were 8-0 and in first-place as of Tuesday night, found out that they would have to forfeit five games due to an ineligible player, dropping them to fourth in the standings.

The Lady Bears, now 6-3 in 22-4A play and in second-place, gave the Lady Bobcats fits until Orangefield pulled away late.

Orangefield received huge performances from guards Faith Fregia and Emmi Lummus and dominated the Lady Bears on the boards to grab the win.

Fregia, who has a serious hot hand of late, led the Lady Bobcats with 24 points while Lummus poured in 16.

The duo led a big fourth-quarter surge after LC-M trailed 38-32 entering the fourth period. Fregia and Lummus combined for 19 fourth-quarter points and each hit two critical three-point shots in the final eight minutes.

LC-M guard Chelsea Perry had a stellar game as well and helped lead an LC-M surge by scoring 15 of her 21 points in the middle two quarters. She also led the Lady Bears with nine rebounds and was 8-of-9 from the free-throw line. Asjah Harper had 10 points for the Lady Bears, all coming in the fourth quarter while Jacie Miller had nine points and five boards.

Orangefield crushed the Lady Bears on the glass, finishing with a 47-34 rebounding edge. Lady Bobcat post Cameron Choate notched another double-double, scoring 10 points while grabbing 12 rebounds before fouling out in the fourth quarter. Jayme Duetsch played stellar defense for Orangefield and snagged 12 rebounds too while Lummus added seven boards and Fregia six.

Genesis Barclay and Zaria Johnson had five rebounds apiece for the Lady Bears.

The Lady Bobcats led by as much as 17-6 in the first quarter but the Lady Bears cut it to 17-10.

Lummus was a perfect 6-for-6 from the line in the quarter while Fregia had four points. Miller had four quick points for LC-M.

The Lady Bears continued to whittle away at the lead and a Perry three-point bomb made it a 23-22 game with 0:44 in the half but the Lady Bobcats scored the last four points on buckets by Fregia and Tatum Garlington.

Fregia had seven second-quarter points for the Lady Bobcats while Perry scored six for LC-M.

Perry scored nine of LC-M’s 10 points in the third quarter to keep the Lady Bears in striking defense.

The fourth-quarter, though, it was the “Fregia and Lummus Show” as the Lady Bobcats quickly built a double-digit lead and kept it. Fregia tallied 11 points in the period while Lummus chimed in with eight.

Orangefield forced LC-M into eight of their 17 turnovers in the last eight minutes. The Lady Bobcats finished with 11 turnovers.

Orangefield finished 16-of-26 from the free-throw line while the Lady Bears went 17-of-33.

The Lady Bobcats will wrap up the regular season Tuesday at West Orange-Stark while LC-M returns home to face Silsbee. Bridge City defeated WO-S Friday and the Lady Cardinals are now 5-4 in district and will visit Hamshire-Fannett Tuesday.

A LC_M win over Silsbee would clinch the second-place seed for LC-M. However, an LC-M loss and a Bridge City win Tuesday would force a tie for the second seed.