NATCHEZ &045; When it came down to crunch time, the Bogue Chitto Bobcats didn’t have to look for Irrie Catchings.

And that’s what really helped.

The lanky, sweet-shooting Catchings still did enough damage with 22 points, but his teammates stepped up late to take a 58-42 win over Cathedral in the championship game of the Division 7-1A tournament at the Roy Garcia Gym.

With the luxury of the expanded playoff system this year, both teams will be home Tuesday in the first round of the playoffs. The playoffs now take the top four finishers in each regional tournament.

&uot;I’m so proud of those guys,&uot; BC head coach Jason Kennedy said. &uot;Nobody gave us a chance to get here, but we’ve been playing so well. In 1A basketball, we’ve got an 11-game winning streak. The only team that has beaten us was Loyd Star, and they’re 2A. We were so patient. We probably moved it six or seven times around the perimeter until we got a layup. We showed a lot of heart at the end.&uot;

The loss ended an improbable run for the Green Wave, who came in as the No. 5 seed in the tournament and knocked off St. Aloysius and West Lincoln to land in the finals in front of the home crowd.

The game was tight for about 2 1/2 quarters before the Bobcats started to pull away. Cathedral got a basket from Matt Goss with 3:43 left in the third that cut the lead to two before Bogue Chitto started to make a run.

&uot;It wasn’t as much our offense as we gave up offensive rebounds,&uot; Cathedral head coach Bobby Holder said. &uot;Number 32 (Catchings) and got about three offensive rebounds in a row, and he put the back and scored. That gave them a little separation, and they weren’t as tentative. They relaxed, got an eight-point lead. The kids played hard and did everything I asked them to do.&uot;

The Bobcats finished the third quarter on a 6-2 run &045; Catchings had just two in the third &045; and took a 37-31 lead heading into the fourth quarter. Then Michael Blackwell and Catchings each tossed in a basket to start the fourth quarter to make the run 10-2 and the score 41-31.

The Green Wave couldn’t get a shot to fall up against that 2-3 zone defense, and after Russell Barmer hit a short jumper to end the run, the Bobcats answered with an 8-0 run to take a 16-point lead with 4:09 left.

&uot;We had to stay with (the zone) because we were contesting everything,&uot; Kennedy said. &uot;We put a hand up on every shot. I feel like we really made it tough for them. The goal was one shot &045; block out, rebound and run the floor. That was our goal, and we did it. We played a slow-paced game with them, which is not what I wanted to do.&uot;