#2 Summerland outlasts #4 St. Mary's in scoring explosion

O'NEILL - If you wanted fireworks in January, aside from New Years Day, you needed to be in O'Neill for the Bobcat-Cardinals battle between Summerland and St Mary's.

Both teams were lethal from the perimeter as 23 three-pointers connected in the ball game, 15 of which scored by the Cardinals.

The Bobcats (11-0) came out firing, creating great shot selections off of crisp passing both inside and out.

The Cardinals (9-2) kept pace with the Bobcats, only trailing 44-33 at the half.

St. Mary's drew the game to seven points in the third, but Summerland continued to create "and-one" opportunities on the interior, holding a 58-47 lead in the fourth.

The cold St. Mary shooting began to spark in the fourth quarter as James Eby hit a few clutch shots to bring the score to 61-58 with under two minutes left.

Summerland made the late plays needed to collect the win, staying unbeaten at 12-0, dropping St. Mary's to 9-3.

The Bobcats saw six players in double figures: Sam Cheatum (16), Michael Koenig (16), Parker Napier (12), Alec Schindler (10), Preston Hoke (10).

Gage Hedstrom had another lights-out performance, scoring 22 points in the loss. Logan Brabec scored 14, Ben Barlow had 13 and James Eby added 9 points in the losing effort.