The Bainbridge High School Bearcats basketball team dropped a 69-66 Region 1-AAAA decision to the Americus-Sumter Panthers in Bainbridge last Friday night.

An end of game pushing and shoving confrontation that ended in the ejection of Bearcat point guard Tyree Crump and Panthers player Javon Hughes marred the competition.

Both players were thrown out of the game. Also ejected were the Bearcats reserves that left the bench to go out onto the court during the fight. Crump and Hughes will both serve two game suspensions. The Bainbridge players who left the bench were suspended for one game.

The Bearcats begin Region 1-AAAA Tournament play today against the Cook County High School Hornets at the Monroe High School Tornadoes gymnasium in Albany with starters Trevon Shaw, Myles Thomas, Devontae Jones and Malik Middleton ready to go. A player called up from the junior varsity team will be the fifth starter, replacing Crump.

Crump led the Bearcats in scoring Friday night with 26 points. Shaw added 14, Thomas put in eight, Middleton scored six and Jones scored five.

The Bearcats went up 10-4 in the first quarter Friday night when Thomas hit two free throws in the first quarter with 3:19 showing on the first quarter clock. They led 18-14 at the end of the first quarter.

The Panthers went ahead 26-22 when Jones pulled down a rebound and put it back in with 4:02 left in the third quarter. Shaw hit a free throw with 1:18 remaining in the game to put the Bearcats up 66-64. The panthers D.J. Harris scored the last five points of the game to pull out the victory.

Bearcats coach Rickey McCullough said he thought his team played hard and well against the Panthers.

“We had our chances, but we just fell a little short,” he said.