Coach Rickey McCullough’s Bainbridge High School Bearcats opened their Region 1-AAAA schedule on a high note over the weekend, sweeping past the Thomas County Central High School Yellow Jackets and Lee County High School Trojans at home.

On Friday, the Bearcats, who improved their season record to 18-4 with the two weekend victories, defeated Thomas County Central, 59-47, and on Saturday they raced past Lee County, 80-39.

Dillen Thomas and Dontavius Marshall combined for 31 points to lead the Bearcats past the Yellow Jackets on Friday night. Thomas led the way with 16 and Marshall added 15.

Thomas put them ahead 8-6 at the end of the first quarter when he hit a layup off the right glass with just 18 seconds showing on the clock.

Marshall’s three-point jumper from the right side with three seconds left in the second quarter enabled the Bearcats to walk off the court with a 30-26 halftime lead. They built their lead to 54-43, when Rodney Glenn hit a three-point jumper from the left baseline with 3:31 left in the game.

Saturday’s game with the Trojans was never in doubt as the Bearcats built a 48-12 halftime lead. They quickly made it 53-12 with a three-point jumper from the right baseline by Glenn at the 7:03 mark of the third quarter, and a turnaround jumper by Thomas at the 6:28 mark. They were ahead 62-28 at the end of the third quarter.

The Bearcats went on a 12-0 scoring run at the beginning of the fourth quarter to build a 74-28 advantage. The run included a Thomas dunk, a turnaround Glenn jumper in the lane, a Thomas jumpshot, a Mike Jones layup, a Paul Chukes dunk and a Marshall layup.

The Bearcats were led Saturday night by Glenn with 24 points and Thomas with 12. Josh Larera was the high scorer for the Trojans with 15.

“I thought we played well Friday and Saturday,” McCullough said following the two victories. “We didn’t play all of our reserves Saturday because you can only play five quarters a week and some of our players also played in some junior-varsity games and had used their allotted quarters.”

The Bearcats played Tuesday night in Pelham, and will remain on the road to play Thomas County Central on Friday. Bainbridge returns home Saturday to host Cairo at 7:30 p.m.