North Louisiana Spotlight – Tournament Edition
It’s Thursday morning and the hoops action will be hot today in the Boot. I-20 West and East has some big tournament contest all day long. Teams in these tournaments will make a push for their last non-district quality wins before district play dominates the rest of the season. Here at Prep Hoops, we will give the lineup for the day at the Bossier Invitational (Bossier High) and the Don Redden Memorial Classic (Ouachita High).
Notable tournament games (Quarterfinals):
Natchitoches Central vs Benton. The #1 ranked Chiefs, led by Northwestern State-signee Brian White will play their first game of the tournament against Benton who beat a hot Red River team by ten on day one. Benton was led by Jalen Harding’s 31 points on last night. They must hope that Harding can continue his scoring ways on today if they are to pull off the upset. Benton must also recover from last night’s late game to play to their best. If they do not, this may be an easy win for Natchitoches Central.
Bossier vs Green Oaks. Junior guards Jacoby Decker and Kaalas Roots will look to lead the Bearkats into what should be an uptempo duel with the Green Oaks Giants. Giants coach Chris Bush will probably have a game plan of how to defend the inside outside play of Bossier. If Green Oaks guards can play as they did on day one when they pressured Ruston into mistakes, then Green Oaks might just walk away with the victory in Bossier’s gym. Look for sophomore post Dante Bell to have something to say about the outcome as well.
Deridder vs Richwood. Richwood will look to keep their improved play going in this battle against the number three ranked 4A team in Deridder. UL-Lafayette signee Randy Gladney will lead his team into this battle as his team travels north to play an always talented Rams squad. Zachariah Malone will have to play very big to negate the advantage of Gladney in the post. Getting the same scoring effort from Joseph Smith and Demarcius Chisley will be needed to pull off this non-district win.
Huntington vs Southwood. After a narrow victory on Tuesday night (against Parkway), Southwood will look to start a winning streak as they take on the Raiders. A battle on the boards between Hunter (6’7″) and Davis (6’4″) and Kamren Davis (6’6″) and Letreavin Black (6’4″) might be where this game is decided. Southwood won an earlier tilt by one in overtime and will look to make it 2-0 against their city rival. If the Cowboys senior guards play well, the game will be definitely different than the first game.
Carroll vs Rayville. At Ouachita, the #6 rated Bulldogs will take a crack at breaking the undefeated streak of the Rayville Hornets. Carroll has the height to both Rayville’s post players. The key for them will be guarding Mylik Wilson. If they can contain his scoring and not let him dominate on the offensive and defensive end as he has done at times this season, then Carroll can win. This is a tough task of course. Beating the #1 ranked Hornets can go a long way in catapulting Carroll into the rest of their district play.
Other tournament games of note (Day 2):
- Union Parish vs Ruston (Bossier)
- Mansfield vs BTW Shreveport (Bossier)
- Red River vs Union-Ruston winner (Bossier)
- Vision Academy vs West Ouachita (Ouachita)
- East Ascension vs Neville (Ouachita)
- West Monroe vs Lafayette Christian (Ouachita)
- Ouachita vs Franklin Parish (Ouachita)