Brutal Bayou District: District titles still up for grabs

One game at a time.

That’s been the motto of basketball coaches throughout District 8-5A all season because of the district’s wide-open, unpredictable nature.

With just two weeks remaining in the boy’s season and one week to play on the girl’s side, both district championships are still dangling in the balance on the hardwood floors of Lafourche and Terrebonne Parish’s high schools on Tuesday and Friday nights, setting up what should be an exciting end to the season.

“Every night, you have to come out ready to play in this district,” said South Lafourche girl’s basketball coach Corey Callais. “We have so many teams that can beat each other nightly … you can’t overlook anyone and expect to win.”

On the boy’s side, it’s a four-team race for the title.

Thibodaux currently has the lead with an 8-1 district record. But South Lafourche, Central Lafourche and Terrebonne are all nipping at the Tigers’ heels and are trailing close behind. Each team still has a chance to win the district title.

“You look at the standings and it seems like there’s always some kind of crazy three-or-four-team tie for first place,” said Terrebonne boy’s basketball coach Byron McPhearson. “We already know that everyone is going to be fighting harder … you have to play your best to win.”

The Tarpons are currently first in line behind Thibodaux with a 6-2 district record. Central Lafourche is 6-3 and Terrebonne is 6-3.

“It’s going to come down to the last game of the year,” said South Lafourche coach Brian Callais. “There’s four teams battling it out and just two teams get that automatic playoff bid.”

What should play into Thibodaux’s hands down the stretch is scheduling.

The Tigers are already finished playing both Terrebonne and Central Lafourche and have just one game with South Lafourche remaining. That means the Tigers can benefit as the three teams chasing them will beat one another in the final weeks of the season.

Thibodaux currently has a 4-1 record against the teams chasing them with their only loss coming to Terrebonne earlier in the season.

But the hottest team on the Tigers’ trail right now might be the South Lafourche Tarpons, who lost their opening district game of the season, but have cruised since then and have won six of their past seven games, including a two-point road win at Central Lafourche and a 65-40 thumping of Terrebonne last Tuesday.

“We didn’t peak yet,” Callais said following the win against Terrebonne. “And that’s a good thing. Hopefully if we can get in the playoffs, we can make some noise.”

The women’s side is less clustered than the men and the race is down to two teams – Thibodaux and Terrebonne.

The two teams are currently tied atop the standings with 9-1 records with their only losses coming to one another.

Thibodaux beat Terrebonne 54-51 on Jan. 5, but Terrebonne returned the favor and beat Thibodaux 57-37 on Jan. 29.

“Thibodaux is so dangerous, because every night they have one or two new people who might step up their game,” said Terrebonne girl’s basketball coach Greg Knox. “You never know who to key on … that’s what I’m trying to get our girls to be able to do, too.”

Should the teams roll through the final week of the season tied, they would play a district playoff game to determine the champion.

The outcome of that game may be largely impacted by the flip of a coin, as a coin toss would be held to determine who had home field advantage in the game if the teams end the regular season with the same record.

Both teams won on their own home floors this season in the two matchups.

Corey Callais has coached against both teams this year and said he doesn’t see a clear favorite in the race.

“They’re very similar,” he explained. “Both teams have good, quick, athletic guards. Both have good post players. Both are very physical. And both are well coached. They’ve played one another two times and they each won a game, so it’s going to be very interesting to watch. It’s a tossup.”

Neither Thibodaux nor Terrebonne should have an advantage in scheduling during the final week of the season as Terrebonne will play South Terrebonne and Thibodaux will play H.L. Bourgeois. Both the Lady Gators and Lady Braves are at the bottom of the district standings.

But despite the soft ending to the season, Knox said he doesn’t expect his team to overlook any opponent in anticipation of a possible playoff with Thibodaux.

“I’ve been telling our ladies all year, you can not take anyone for granted,” Knox said. “Everyone in this district is so competitive and you’ve been playing the same people all these years, anything can happen.”