Vandy wins decisively over O.P. Walker

On a night when the Krewe of Hercules kicked off Houma’s Mardi Gras parade schedule, DeShawn Patterson put on his own Herculean-like performance inside Vandebilt’s gym in a 72-66 win for the Terriers.

Facing District 8-4A opponent O.P. Walker, Patterson took control of the game early, scoring 12 first-quarter points en route to a 20-6 lead at the end of one. For the game, Patterson finished with 32 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists.

The win moved Vandebilt into a second-place tie with O.P. Walker, with both teams at 4-2.

“Those guys are good,” said Vandebilt coach Rafe Blades. “And I thought DeShawn dominated anybody they tried to put on him. Nobody could guard DeShawn. Our four or five other guys stepped up, but I thought DeShawn was excellent tonight.”

Patterson’s performance nearly got lost in a game marred with controversy. Numerous stoppages occurred because of conflicting scorebooks, and O.P. Walker nearly left court with 20 seconds remaining, finished the game with four players on the court.

Chargers’ coach Brian Gipson said bad calls by the referees ruined the game. “The proof was in the game,” he said. “We weren’t shooting in the bonus the whole game. This was supposed to be a better game than this. For it to go down the way it did was a disgrace.”

Gipson was upset at the free throw shooting situation. On the night, Vandebilt attempted 50 free throws, while O.P. Walker had just 18.

Blades said the difference was that his team was drawing fouls around the basket. “I thought our kids did an excellent job,” said Blades. “I told them, a lot of times, when you’re running your offense, when you’re getting layups, when you’re getting easy shots, people play the blame game. You’re giving up 80 percent of your shots on layups. You need to look at that, and not every single foul that was called.”

Before controversy took hold of the game, Vandebilt’s fast start gave it a 20-6 lead after one quarter. But three-point shooting barrage by O.P. Walker cut the deficit to 34-29 at halftime.

At one point in the second quarter, the Charges made five-consecutive three pointers.

O.P. Walker hung close early in the third quarter, but with the score 40-37, the Terriers went on an 8-0 run to separate themselves, making it 48-37.

The teams went into the fourth quarter with Vandy leading 55-43.

The fourth quarter turned into a free-throw fest, with Vandebilt shooting 26 free throws, many coming late in the game with the Chargers playing catch up. The Terriers scored all 15 fourth-quarter points from the free-throw line.

“We got a bunch of easy shots,” said Blades. “A bunch of easy layups out of our offense. When our offense broke down, DeShawn was able to penetrate the gaps and of course they’re going to double team him. Joel (Ross), DeQuiante (Brown) and Evan (Mistich) were able to get points around the basket.”

On the night, Brown had 14 points. Mistich added 11.

Leading the way for O.P. Walker was Demond Dedeaux (18 points) and Charles Hammork (17 points).