Both before and after the game, the girls basketball match-up between Eureka and Superior seemed pretty even “on paper.”

But on the court, at least last Friday in Superior, the edge went to Western 7B foe Eureka as the visiting Lady Lions pulled away from the Lady Bobcats on their way to a 70-56 pre-Christmas break victory.

The Lady Lions opened a 20-15 lead after one quarter of play, then steadily improved on the advantage the rest of the way.

By halftime Eureka held a tenuous 35-27 lead. From that point, the Lady Lions would never look back.

The visitors exploded for 25 third quarter points while holding Superior to just 10 as they grew their lead to 60-37 heading into the final eight minutes of regulation play.

As they almost always do, the Lady Bobcats continued to fight and trimmed nine points off the Eureka lead in the fourth quarter, but the early deficit proved too much to overcome as the Lady Lions won their second game of the year to improve to 2-3 in the season.

Just one night before, in a game in Darby, Superior had battled back from a similar deficit and stunned the Lady Tigers. But against Eureka, the outcome was not the same.

Rapidly emerging sophomore Josie Crabb scored a game-high 25 points for Superior, who fell to 2-3 with the loss. The Lady Bobcats also got 19 points from forward Braelynn Mangold, who was instrumental in the comeback win over Darby last Thursday.

Eddie Betts chipped in eight points for Superior.

Eureka was led in scoring by Aubrey Casazza, who pumped in 15 points for the Lady Lions, who also got 14 from Dylan Sharp, and 10 from Brynn Miller.

Superior returns from the Holiday break this week and travels to Hot Springs for a game with the Lady Savage Heat Friday(Jan 5) evening. The Lady Bobcats return to their home court the next night (Jan 6) for a rematch with Darby.