Local 5A basketball district goes wild

Throw out the records. Forget who ‘should’ win on paper.

Every Tuesday and Friday night of hoops in the Bayou District is as unpredictable as ever – an all-out scrap that can see anything happen on any given night.

Our local Class 5A basketball district has been wild throughout the first month of league play with the underdogs scoring big upsets on several nights this season.

In the first round of play, three teams (Central Lafourche, Destrehan and East St. John) have emerged as the front runners to win the title. But who wins the championship will probably be decided by what happens at the bottom of the pack. That’s because on any given night, the teams outside of the top three have shown the ability to hang with or beat the top-tier teams – a phenomenon that keeps coaches expecting the unexpected on any night of play.

“There are no easy games – there are no nights off in this district. There never are,” Terrebonne boys’ basketball coach Derek Szush said earlier this season. “Every, single night, you know going in that if you don’t play your best, you’re going to get beat – no matter who is on the schedule against you.”

It is almost a certainty that the district championship race has been narrowed down to a three-team race.

Through the first round of district play, Central Lafourche and East St. John tied with a 6-1 record.

But things changed on Friday night when H.L. Bourgeois upset the Trojans, giving East St. John sole possession of the lead.

If tied again, the Wildcats own the tiebreaker and sit in first place after scoring an easy 67-48 win over the Trojans in Mathews on Jan. 9 – one of five double-digit wins that East St. John accumulated in the opening round of district play.

“We want to peak at the right time,” East St. John coach Yusef Jasmine said. “We have a clear goal – we want to win the state championship. We have a tough district. There are very good teams out here. Playing this schedule will definitely make us ready for the end of the season and beyond.”

But for as dominant as the Wildcats seem at times, they haven’t been immune to the madness. On Jan. 20, East St. John narrowly escaped Thibodaux (3-4 in district), defeating the Tigers 52-49. Two games later, Destrehan established themselves as a district championship contender, rallying from a large hole to upset East St. John 60-56.

The win made Destrehan 5-2, putting them a game out of the lead.

Until, of course, the Wildcats were upset by Terrebonne on Friday – dropping them two games off the pace.

For as good as things may look for Destrehan right now, things could be the exact opposite had the ball bounced the opposite way a couple of times along the way. The Wildcats could have easily lost three of the games they won in the first round of district play, topping Terrebonne by 7 in round one, Thibodaux by 1 and South Lafourche by 4 – all teams that the Wildcats would be favored to beat if one looks strictly at standings and win/loss records.

The Wildcats lost by 9 to the Trojans in Mathews and were soundly beaten by 17 against Hahnville – perhaps a surprising result when one considers that the Tigers are 10-12 on the season and 3-4 in district play. But as coaches continue to say: Anything can happen in this district.

“We have a lot of good coaches in this district,” Thibodaux boys’ basketball coach Tony Clark said before the start of league play. “And we also have a lot of programs with a lot of pride around here. The kids all want and expect to win games and make the playoffs and everything like that. And I think that’s why we’re all so close to one another.”

Even the teams currently near last place have to be accounted for on any given night.

Szush’s Terrebonne Tigers are talented and could easily be sitting better than they currently are. Before upsetting the Wildcats, Terrebonne had lost by just 1 point to Central Lafourche in a thriller. They also lost a last-second, hard-fought 72-70 battle with Hahnville on Jan. 13.

H.L. Bourgeois is another team whose season could be entirely different if it were able to be played over again. Like Terrebonne, the Braves were 2-5 in the first round of league play, losing to Central Lafourche, Thibodaux, East St. John, Destrehan and Terrebonne.

But four of the team’s five district losses were by just a combined 10 points. All four of those games were decided by three points or fewer – one possession games.

They, too, broke the ice this week by topping Central Lafourche to move to 3-5.

Then there’s South Lafourche. Ravished by injuries and attrition, the Tarpons have the worst overall record in District 7-5A, sitting at 7-14 at press-time.

But for all of the team’s shortcomings in personnel, South Lafourche makes up for it in effort. The Tarpons defeated Hahnville by 11 last Tuesday night – their first district win of the season.

South Lafourche’s first half was filled with near-misses. The Tarpons led Terrebonne and H.L. Bourgeois in the second half of games before running out of gas and falling late. South Lafourche also pushed Central Lafourche and Destrehan to the brink, trailing both by just a couple points deep into the second half.

“We’re battling, and we’re playing hard,” South Lafourche coach Brian Callais said. “When we play well, we feel like we can beat anyone in the district.”

The first round of district play was a treat – a wild train ride filled with upsets and close finishes.

If round two is the same, we’re in for a treat.