Morris Rousse
March 23, 2007Harold Fuselier
March 30, 2007
If anything, Saturday night’s Boy’s High School All Star game had all the implications of an NBA style All-Star game.
The game had everything from dunks to alley oops and numerous three-point shots as each team shattered the 100-point mark.
When it was all said and done, the East walked away with a 118-111 win.
Two local players, E.D. White’s Ben Martin and Ellender’s Walter Jones, participated in the event on opposite teams.
Martin, who participated on the West side, wowed the crowd with solid three-point shooting. He finished with 12 points, all on which came on three pointers.
“This is the most fun game I have ever played in other than the playoff games,” Martin said. “I was glad I was able to put on a show for my family and friends for my last high school game.”
Jones only finished with two points, but was involved in a number of assists on dunks and alley-oops.
“It was great opportunity,” Jones said. “All of us came together and we came out with the win. We might have the opportunity to go on in the future and do something with ourselves.”
The East squad never trailed in the first half. After leading by as many as 10, 14-4, early on in the game, the West squad was able to eventually crawl back in it and cut the deficit to one, 31-30.
The West squad was never able to take the lead however and the East carried a 65-52 halftime lead.
The tide turned in the second half though as the West opened the second half with a 27-8 run, led by six points each from Peabody’s Marcus Simmons and Barbe’s Nate Guillory, to take a 79-73 lead.
The West increased their lead to as many as 13 (91-78) before the East used a 12-0 run behind a team effort to pull within 91-90. The East used a 27-12 run, ending with a dunk by Quachita’s Mitchell Hampton as time expired, to seal the win.
“I thought we played really well to open the game,” East Head Coach, St. Paul’s Mike Toups said. “Obviously in the second half they came to play and we struggled for a while and we were fortunate our third group came in and turned the tide.”
Five players scored in double figures for the West. Besides Martin, St. Martinville’s Jelani Mitchell (13), Laccasine’s Stephan Martin (10), Simmons (16) and Deridder’s Billy Cotton all had double figures.
Leading the East squad were Glen Oaks’ William Spencer (25), St. Amant’s Travis Bureau (11) led all East scorers.
The Head Coach of the West squad, Montgomery’s James Reeves, said even though his team lost, he was still pleased with the effort.
“This is the closest thing we’ll ever coach to what the NBA is like,” Reeves said. “Before you know it we are down 14 and the next thing we know we are up 13. We kept wondering who was going to make the last run and they did. They pulled away at the end. We made our run in the second half and just couldn’t pull it off.”
