A pair of easy wins and an eye-opening defeat was the case for the Western 14C conference No. 1 seed Superior Lady Bobcats basketball team during the final week of the regular season.

The Superior boys, meanwhile, lost two close games, then won a double-overtime thriller in Plains as the Bobcats showed they are an improved team, injected with young blood heading into the playoffs, which begin this Thursday in Polson.

The Lady Cats opened their week with an easy 67-16 win over the Two Eagle River Lady Eagles in Superior last Tuesday in a rescheduled match for an earlier weather related cancellation.

The Cats jumped on the Eagles early, outscoring them 18-5 in the first quarter, then 19-5 in the second frame to take a commanding 37-10 lead at the half.

And if things weren’t bad enough for Two Eagle River at that point, Superior poured it on in the third quarter, out-pointing the Lady Eagles 21-2 to create an insurmountable 58-12 lead with eight minutes to play and the clock running as per the state’s Mercy Rule.

The win boosted Superior’s girls to 12-0 in 14C play and 15-1 on the year as they head into this week’s District 14C tournament. The top-seeded Cats have a bye Thursday, then play the winner of a first round match-up between Hot Springs and St. Regis Friday at 5 pm.

Isabella Pereira, the speedy senior guard and floor general, paced the Lady Cats with a game-high 25 points.

The Bobcats played at Plains on Friday (see accompanying story) and beat the home standing Trotters 64-23. Saturday they wrapped up their three-game week with a loss to regional powerhouse Philipsburg 55-43 in a game played in Superior.

The Lady Prospectors upped their season mark to 14-4 with the win, while the loss was just the second of the year for Superior, which closed out its regular season with a sparkling 16-2 record.

Both teams played defense in a low-scoring first quarter which saw Philipsburg emerge with a 6-3 lead. The two teams traded baskets the rest of the first half, giving the visitors an 18-17 halftime lead.

Philipsburg then began to slowly pull away from the host team, outscoring them 13-10 in the third quarter and taking a 31-27 lead into the final eight minutes of regulation.

The Lady Prospectors outscored Superior 24-16 in the fourth quarter to sew up the win.

Lani Crabb led the Cats with 20 points while teammate Payton Milender added 10.

Gretchen Hill of Philipsburg led all scorers with 21 points.

The boys opened their week with a narrow 41-39 loss to Two Eagle River, which is the third seed for the upcoming 14C tourney. Superior is the number four seed and will take on fifth seed Noxon in opening round play this Thursday.

Against Two Eagle River, Superior found itself trailing 10-5 at the end of one quarter of play, then 22-16 at the half.

Superior rallied in the second half, outscoring Two Eagle 23-19 but it was not enough to overcome the Eagles’ lead.

The conference loss left Superior with a 5-7 14C record and 5-11 on the year. Senior forward Orion (Bean) Plakke led the Bobcats with 12 points, while Thomas Spotted Eagle had 23 for TER to lead all scorers.

As was the case with the Superior girls, the boys played at Plains Friday night and won a thrilling two overtime game against the Horsemen (see accompanying story).

Saturday night they played host to the Philipsburg boys in a game that was close throughout the 32 minutes of regulation.

The visitors led 12-9 at the end of the first quarter, then bumped that advantage by one point to go into halftime leading 23-19.

The Prospectors slowly pulled away from Superior in a hard-fought second half and held on for the win.

Bobcats senior guard Isaac Miller led Superior with 12 points, while Plakke contributed 11.