El Dorado’s fourth quarter rally fell short Wednesday as the Wildcats lost 62-59 against Lake Hamilton in 5A South play at Wildcat Arena.
El Dorado fell to 5-7 in conference and will now need help if it wants to advance to the 5A State Tournament.
“We technically still have a chance to make the state tournament. But we have to win these next two games for sure,” said Coach Jimmy Porter.
The Wildcats travel to White Hall on Friday before hosting Sheridan in the regular-season finale on Monday.
“With those two wins, it could get interesting depending on what Texarkana does and how Hot Springs does.”
El Dorado trailed 48-38 going into the fourth quarter. The Wildcats closed the gap to three and had a shot attempt to tie the game but missed.
Jarmel Love scored 14 points to pace El Dorado. Isaiah Ramey and David Ayree each scored 12 while Mario Ganter added eight.
El Dorado shot 14-of-25 at the line.
Ty Robinson led the Wolves with 17 points with Cade Robinson adding 13. Zac Pennington chipped in with nine while Chase Jessup added eight.
The game was knotted at 12-12 after one quarter. The Wolves led 30-25 at the half and outscored El Dorado 18-13 in the third period.
“I thought we missed some chip shots throughout the game that we needed to make. They really packed it in. They wanted us to shoot the three. We continued to attack. We just weren’t making shots,” said Porter.
“But, overall, the boys competed and I’m really proud of their effort.
“Moving forward, we’re going to look at White Hall on Friday, go take care of that game.
“And then we’ll look at Sheridan, go take care of that game.
“And then we’ll need a little bit of help from the conference, but we’ve still got a shot.”