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The Bainbridge Bearcats (3-1) fell to the Monroe Tornadoes (2-1) 40-57 in a game that started close but got away from the Bearcats.

Senior point guard AJ Grant led the team with 13 points in the loss. Bainbridge Head Coach Kelvin Cochran said inconsistency was the culprit for the unfavorable outcome.

The game was punctuated by a 3rd quarter the Bearcats will want to forget. The game was close coming out of halftime — Monroe was up 23-27. The Tornadoes outscored Bainbridge 21-5 in the third, turning a 4-point lead into a 20-point lead. The Bearcats only made one 2-point basket and were 3-3 at the free-throw line. 

“Basketball is a game of runs,” Cochran said. “You’ve got to be able to respond and you’ve got to be able to stop their runs. You can’t compound it with bad decisions or bad shots. We’ve got to be more disciplined… We’ve got it on film now so we’ll learn from it.”

The Bearcats gained a lead on the Tornadoes early in the game. They jumped out to a 14-12 score in the first quarter, but Monroe brought it back in the second. The tornadoes outscored the Bearcats 15-9 in the quarter, bringing the total score to 23-27, Monroe, at halftime.

The Bearcats gained a little life in the fourth quarter and took back the momentum for a couple of minutes. They wouldn’t be able to hold on to it though, and the game ended 40-57.

“It’s one of these games, like, I told them, ‘you can take this a** whooping like a man, look yourself in the mirror, and we’ve got to get better at what we do,’” Cochran said.

The Bearcats travel to Thomasville High School next for a rematch of the season’s opening game. The road game against the Bulldogs tips off at 8 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 8.