TENNERTON – Sophomore Jaden Westfall had a double-double with 20 points and 11 rebounds for the Buckhannon-Upshur Buccaneers in their home contest with the Class AAA No. 6 Grafton Bearcats Monday night at the high school.

Westfall’s play was one of the few highlights for the Bucs as they dropped an 83-56 decision.

“We go inside to Westfall and they couldn’t handle us and what do we do? We quit working it inside,” said a frustrated Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Travis Foster after the game.

The game started out well enough for the Bucs as a putback by Westfall gave B-U an early 12-5 lead with 1:21 remaining in the opening quarter.

Grafton ended the final 80 seconds of the stanza on an 8-2 run, but B-U still led 14-13 going into the second quarter.

The second quarter started with Grafton making a pair of technical free throws after a mistake was found in the B-U scorebook, giving Grafton a 15-14 lead. The Bucs would never hold the lead again.

A putback by Ian Strader kept B-U down by two, at 18-16, but Grafton scored six unanswered points for a 24-16 advantage with 5:14 showing on the second-quarter clock.

Zach Calef-Boring unleashed a three-pointer and Westfall scored underneath to bring the Bucs to within three, at 24-21, but Grafton netted a pair of three-pointers, pushing their lead back to nine, at 30-21.

Calef-Boring put in a lay-up to end the second quarter scoring, leaving the Bucs down by six at the half, at 35-29.

A Lamar Hurst basket kept the Bucs down 11, at 46-35, but Grafton scored seven straight points for a 53-35 lead with 2:46 left in the third quarter.

The Bucs were down 21 at the end of the quarter, at 63-42.

The closest B-U could get in the fourth quarter was 23 points after an inside basket by Sterlin Thropp that made it 67-44. Grafton’s biggest lead of the game was 30 points, at 76-46, with 3:35 left in the game. Thropp had 10 points for the Bucs followed by Hurst getting nine and Calef-Boring seven.

Strader had six points and 11 rebounds for B-U.

Grafton ended their regular season with a 16-6 mark as Justin Spiker led them in scoring with 24 points while Ryan Maier added 23 and Kaden Delaney 19. Grafton shot 60 percent from behind the three-point line, hitting 12 treys.

“We had no communication,” Foster said. “There was no secret to what Grafton was or how they play. We sat there and let them shoot rather than make them put the ball on the floor.”

Two days earlier, the Bucs made the long trip to Jefferson to face the Class AAAA No. 1 Cougars. The Bucs lost the contest by a 69-48 score. Thropp paced the Bucs with 17 points while Hurst had 11.

Cameron Johnson had a team-high 14 points for the Cougars, who improved to 18-0 on the season.

The two games dropped the Bucs to 9-12 on the year as they will be back in action Wednesday hosting South Charleston at 7:30 p.m. in their regular-season finale.