There was no love and there was no joy Wednesday night as the Bainbridge High School Bearcats lost 67-59 to the Lovejoy High School Wildcats in state AAAA basketball playoffs.

Jermaine Hough and Justin Green scored 14 points a piece to lead the Wildcats from Hampton, Ga., to advance to the Elite Eight AAAA game in Fort Valley, Ga., on Friday. The Wildcats will play the winner of the game between Bannekar of Statesboro.

The Bearcats completed their season with an outstanding 27-3 record.

After the game, Bainbridge head coach Rickey McCullough said “We started shooting cold, but a number of our shots just rimmed out. I am so proud of these kids. Tonight they played hard right up to the end.”

The Bearcats were behind 40-26 at the half.

Devon Baulkman took game-scoring honors with 26 points, and Rodney Glenn added 12 for the Bearcats.

Completing the Bearcats’ scoring chart were Rohan Gaines with 8, Shawn Samuels with 5 and Ronald Crawford with 4.

“We finished 27-3, and I’ll take that every year,” McCullough said. “At the end of the season, there is only one team that is really happy.”