By JASON KING
Leader sportswriter
A bad fourth quarter prevented the Cabot Panthers from increasing their 7A-Central Conference winning streak to five games on Tuesday at Conway. The Panthers suffered a 69-55 loss to the Wampus Cats, ending a streak of four consecutive league wins.
Cabot had the Wampus Cats down by six points with six mintues to go in the game, but Conway rallied with nearly 20 unanswered points to overtake the Panthers, and set a final margin that did not reflect the competitiveness of the game.
Cabot coach Jerry Bridges said that playing on the road was a factor, but that the ’Cats’ rally did most of the damage to themselves.
“There were some things that I felt turned the momentum,” Bridges said. “But you have to give Conway credit, they got us down and we couldn’t recover. It just seemed kind of like a snowball once things started going bad for us, like there was a lid on the goal.”
Junior guard Adam Sterrenberg was the only Panther in double figures with 24 points, 21 of which came in the first half. Austin Johnson added nine points for Cabot, while Sam Bates finished with seven points and post player Miles Monroe added six.
For Conway, Terry Tidwell led with 15 points. The win improved the Wampus Cats’ record to 14-5 overall and 6-1 in the 7A-Central Conference. The Panthers fell to 15-7 and 4-4 with the loss and alone into fifth place, two games behind North Little Rock and Catholic.
“We just have to re-group,” Bridges said. “You can’t dwell on a loss. You have to go out and keep taking care of business on the court. We knew before the year started that there were no guarantees; we’ve got some tough games still to play.”
The Lady Panthers kept themselves in the Central hunt with a 58-51 win over Conway. The win gives Cabot a season sweep of the preseason favorite Lady Wampus Cats.
Cabot went on a late run to overtake the lead from the Lady ’Cats in the first half, and didn’t look back in the final two frames.
Point guard Leah Watts led the Lady Panthers with 18 points, while sophomore post player Sara Moore finished with a career-high 15 points. Junior post Stephanie Glover had 10 points for Cabot. For Conway, Chelsea Sublett led with 17 points. The win gives the Lady Panthers a 15-8 overall record and 5-3 in the 7A-Central Conference.
Conway fell to 16-3 overall and 5-2 in league play.
The Cabot teams hosted Catholic/Mt. Saint Mary last night after Leader deadlines, and will host North Little Rock on Tuesday before closing out the week on the road at Little Rock Central next Friday.
