CHARLESTON — It was only Saturday when Bridgeport’s girls knocked off the Westside Lady Renegades in the Class AA championship game.

Thursday morning, the Renegade boys were hoping to exact a little revenge on the Indians.

But the crew from Clear Fork suffered much the same fate as their female counterparts and were eliminated in the opening round of Class AA play, 79-71.

The Renegades hadn’t lost a game where they scored more than 70 points all season.

“Our on-ball defense was lacking, to say the least,” Westside coach Nick Cook said. “I thought that was the biggest key to the game.”

Westside’s defense had a difficult time containing Bridgeport’s Jordan Haywood. The slashing guard scored 28 points and went 10-for-10 from the line.

If Westside’s defense was the biggest key to the game, foul trouble was a close second.

There were 50 personal fouls called in the game that resulted in Bridgeport going to the line 39 times. The Indians only missed eight of them.

“Thirty-nine foul shots,” Cook said. “We put them on the line way too much. Bottom line is we didn’t do a very good job getting them out of the paint.”

Keeping the Indians out of the lane proved to be more difficult when senior Jason Scarlett was out of the lineup.

The longest player for the Renegades only played 21 minutes and eventually fouled out early in the fourth quarter, allowing Bridgeport to outscore Westside 25-19 in the final 8 minutes for the victory.

“Jason does a good job with blocking shots,” Cook said. “He does a good job going straight up, too. That kind of hurt us when he was out of the game. They were able to get to the basket, and that hurt us. We couldn’t influence their shot selection.”

Bridgeport shot 87.5 percent from the field in the second half.

It wasn’t all bad for the Renegades, though.

As they’ve done time and again all season, Westside caught fire in the second quarter. After being down 10 early, they went on a 9-0 run to take a 37-28 lead.

“It was nothing for us to rattle off 10, 12 or 20 points in a row this season. It was a pretty good run for us,” Cook said.

However, the Renegade shooting went cold as the game progressed. Westside’s normally hot outside shot wasn’t falling. The Renegades only connected on three the entire game.

“It’s shooting in the Civic Center,” Cook explained. “You don’t play many games here. It’s different.”

“Our shots wouldn’t fall from the outside,” Corey Bowles said, fighting back the tears. “We did a bad job of taking it to the hole.”

Even in the defeat, Cook has a lot to look forward to. The team is only losing one senior. It just happens that senior had his best career game in a Renegade uniform, a 12-point, 11-rebound double-double.

“I wanted to go hard on this one game here,” Scarlett said. “I wanted to go all the way and not leave anything on the floor. I think  I did that, but, unfortunately, we’re going home. It was the best game I’ve had. It’s just not the same without that ring.”

 — E-mail:  jrollins

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BRIDGEPORT (19-7)

Haywood 9-17 10-10 28, Sprouse 3-4 3-3 10, Robey 3-6 6-8 13, Wilfong 1-4 7-11 9, Sprouse 5-8 1-1 11, Kummer 0-1 2-2 2, Bonamico 1-1 2-2 4, Reese 0-1 0-0 0, Haddix 0-0 0-2 0, Bombardiere 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 23-43 31-39 79.

WESTSIDE (19-7)

Bowles 5-19 3-8 14, Kenneda 1-7 2-2 5, Lambert 5-9 0-0 11, Scarlett 4-4 4-7 12, Cogar 8-11 3-4 19, Cook 0-0 0-0 0, Fox 0-3 8-8 8, Browning 0-1 0-0 0, Jenkins 0-0 0-0 0, Robinson 0-0 0-0 0, West 1-1 0-0 2, Harless 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-55 20-29 71.

Bridgeport       19 11 24 25—79

Westside         14 23 15 19—71

3-Point Goals—Bridgeport 2-7 (Robey 1-1, Sprouse 1-2, Reese 0-1, Haywood 0-3), Westside 3-18 (Lambert 1-2, Kenneda 1-4, Bowles 1-10, Cogar 0-1, Fox 0-1). Fouled Out—Lambert, Scarlett. Rebounds—Bridgeport 26 (Sprouse 10), Westside 34 (Scarlett 11). Assists—Bridgeport 13 (Sprouse 4), Westside 14 (Fox 4). Total Fouls—Bridgeport 23, Westside 27.