Brookhaven Academy and Bowling Green School faced off Tuesday inside John R. Gray Gymnasium. The home-standing Cougars and the Bucs from Franklinton, Louisiana occupy the same MAIS 5A district and the pairing was the final division matchup for BA before they go back through a second round of district play beginning on Friday at Parklane Academy.

Cougar fans had something to cheer about as the girls’ team and coach Drake Flowers got the night started with a 42-25 victory and coach Josh Watts and his BA boys’ squad capped things off with a 56-50 win in the finale.

Flowers and his team have been battling illness of late and on Tuesday, senior guard Ella Smith did not start because of it.

Smith is the leading scorer on the team.

The only other senior on the roster for the Cougars, Ainsley Orr, scored half of her team’s points in the first quarter when BA led 8-5 after the opening eight minutes of play.

Orr also scored on an offensive rebound and putback that came late in the second quarter to make things 14-12 after Bowling Green had just tied the game. The Cougars were up 14-13 at the halftime break.

Flowers had his team speed up the pace of play in the third quarter, as some pressure by BA made BG play a little faster than they needed to, leading to some easier baskets for the Cougars.

That didn’t happen until midway through the third though, as BG went up for the first time in the game, 17-14, just after halftime.

Orr went on another tear, scoring back-to-back trips on offensive putbacks to put the Cougars up 18-17 and 20-17.

Things got a little more comfortable for the Brookhaven fans late in the third quarter when Anne Rylea Thurman knocked down a 3-pointer to push the Cougar lead to 23-17.

Thurman, a sophomore who’s been a varsity starter since 8th grade, recently topped the 1,000-career points mark.

BA led 27-19 and the fight was out of the opposition late in the game as Orr snagged a steal and threw a pass the length of the court where Smith gathered it off the bounce and laid the ball in to make things 40-23.

The matchup against Parklane Academy will see Flower’s squad face the only district foe to beat them this season. Parklane won at Brookhaven 61-56 on Dec. 13.

The Pioneers and coach Vicki Rutland are currently atop the division and swept the Cougars last year in their two meetings, but then ended up finishing runner-up to BA after losses to Oak Forest, Bowling Green and Columbia for Parklane.

Oak Forest beat Parklane 53-49 last week.

Orr tore up one of her knees back during the summer at a basketball camp. A standout goalkeeper on the pitch, she missed all of her senior soccer campaign and did not return to the court until the Parklane game this season.

Her play on Tuesday was the key to the win as she finished with 19 points, 11 rebounds, and three steals. Smith scored nine points and Thurman added eight points. Bailey Douglas, Susanna Tate, and Ruth Ellen Gates scored two points each for the Cougars.

The win moved Brookhaven Academy to 15-10 overall and 3-1 in district play.

Watts saw his team up its record to 14-7 with the win.

Brookhaven Academy got three players in double figures, led by senior wing Carter Davis with 19 points. The Coleman boys, brothers Carter and Madden, scored 15 and 14 points each respectively. Sophomore guard Carter Evans had six points after sinking a pair of 3-pointers and junior Carson Mowdy rounded out the BA scoring with two points.

The score was tied at 12-12 after the first quarter and BA led 30-26 at halftime.

The Cougars could not sustain much of an advantage in the second half though, as Bowling Green never trailed by more than eight points and tied the score at 42-42 after a 6-0 run in the fourth quarter.

Carter “Bubba” Coleman, a freshman point guard, went on a personal seven-point run after a pair of layups and a long 3-pointer to put BA back ahead 49-44 late in the game.

Carter Coleman and Davis scored all the fourth quarter points for BA.

Brookhaven Academy finished 3-2 in the first run through the district. Watts saw his team lose to the top MAIS 5A team in Oak Forest Academy (22-2) and a Columbia Academy team coached by his father, Dale.

BA will play at Oak Forest Academy on Jan. 21 and be back in Gray Gymnasium on Jan. 24 hosting Columbia Academy. They’ll close out the regular season the following week by hosting Silliman Institute and then traveling to Bowling Green.