Craig Thomas summed up his Phil Campbell Bobcats Class 3A subregion win over Lexington Monday night in one word coming out of the locker room.

“Whew,” said an exhausted Thomas.

The Bobcats survived a low-scoring battle with the Lexington Golden Bears, winning 39-35 and advancing to the Class 3A Northwest Regionals at Wallace Hanceville. The Bobcats will play New Hope Saturday at 6 p.m.

“I knew it was going to be a battle,” said Thomas. “I had scouted them, and they play very good defense, and it showed. They couldn’t score well, but they could defend.  They gave us problems all night long.”

The key, Thomas said, was getting in transition late and getting to the free throw line.

The free throw shooting, however, was sketchy at best.

“We are going to have to shoot free throws better if we are going to have a chance to keep advancing,” said Thomas.

Phil Campbell was 18 for 31 from the line and eight for 14 in the fourth quarter.

Fortunately for Thomas, Lexington was worse.

The Golden Bears were zero for six in the first half and eight for 12 in the second half.

Phil Campbell led 3-2 for much of the first quarter but went on a run to lead 10-4 by the end of the quarter. Junior guard Caitlyn Mills scored five first-quarter points for the Bobcats.

Lexington stormed back in the second quarter, outscoring Phil Campbell 12-6. Junior forward Katie Thomas had five of the Bobcats’ six points in the second quarter.

The game was tied 16-16 at the half.

Mills scored five more points in the third quarter, helping the Bobcats outscore the Golden Bears 13-9 and take a 29-25 lead into the final quarter.

Senior point guard Kallie Allen and Thomas combined for nine of the Bobcats’ 10 fourth-quarter points to get the win.

Thomas ended the game with 14 points, going seven for 11 from the free-throw line. Mills followed with 10 points, going six for eight from the line.

Allen added six points, Faith Cook four points, Madison Branch three points and Olivia Taylor two points.

OTHER SUBREGION GAMES

In other subregion action, Red Bay and Belgreen both saw their seasons come to an end.

Red Bay lost to Hatton 61-34. Lila Blackburn scored 11 points for Red Bay, followed by Macy Faulkner with eight points and Cass Kuykendall with seven points.

Belgreen lost to Mars Hill 68-43, ending the season with a 20-9 record. Ansley Tate scored 15 for the Bulldogs. Gracie Dempsey and Emma Dempsey scored nine each.