Bobcats advance to parish title game

PRAIRIE RONDE – The Eunice High Bobcats earned a spot in Saturday’s championship game of the St. Landry Parish Basketball Tournament with a 62-57 victory over the Opelousas High Tigers in action at Northwest High School on Friday.
Coach Chad Andrepont’s Bobcats trailed the Tigers by a 15-13 margin at the end of the first quarter. The Tigers’ Terrell Lewis opening the scoring for his team with five points to take the early lead and the Tigers extended the lead to 10-4 with a 3-point goal midway through the quarter.
But the Bobcats countered with field goals from Kevin Williams, Georrein Dupre, and Brandon Ndubueze to tie the game at 10-10. The Tigers scored the next five points before Malik Poullard hit a 3-point goal to cut the lead to 15-13.
Poullard would hit another 3-point goal at the start of the second quarter to give the Cats their first lead of the game at 16-15 and the lead would exchange hands until the Tigers used a 6-point run to go ahead 25-21 with 3:37 left in the quarter.
Williams ended the OHS run with a field goal and two free throws, but Marvin Thompson responded for the Tigers with a 3-point goal and Lewis added two free throws to pull the Tigers ahead 30-25. The Tigers built a 34-25 lead before Williams sank a 3-point goal to cut the lead to 34-28 at the half.
Lewis opened the third quarter with a jumper and a free throw by Antonio Zachary extended the Tiger lead to 37-28 before Malik Poullard hit two free throws to pull Eunice within 37-30. Back to back field goals by Zachary gave the Tigers a 41-30 lead with 5:11 left in the quarter.
The Bobcats put together a 7-0 run behind the play of Williams, DeShawn Vigers, and Mitchell Cormier to cut the Tigers’ lead to 41-39. Opelousas got a bucket to go up 43-39, but Vigers responded with a field goal to cut it to 43-41 with 2:55 left in the quarter.
The Tigers would add two more field goals before the end of the third quarter, but goals in the lane by Williams and Vigers would make it just a two-point lead for OHS heading into the final quarter.
The Tigers extended their lead early in the fourth quarter to go up 53-45, but four free throws from Williams and Dupre would close the gap to 53-49. Consecutive field goals by Ndubueze tied the score at 53-53 with 2:20 left on the clock before Malik Poullard’s third 3-point goal of the game put the Cats ahead 56-53 with 1:29 to play.
The Bobcats would make it 58-53 on a shot by Poullard in the lane and two free throws by Williams would put the Cats on top 60-53 with just 50 seconds remaining in the game. Lewis would cut the lead to 60-56 with a three-pointer, but the Cats would seal the win with free throws by Vigers and Williams to make the final 62-57.
Williams led the scoring for the Bobcats with 25 points, followed by Malik Poullard with 13. Vigers added seven and Ndubueze and Dupre had six apiece. Cormier and Travis Godfrey completed the Eunice scoring with three and two points, respectively.
Marvin Thompson led Opelousas in scoring with 23 points. Lewis added 13 and Zachary had seven for the Tigers.
The victory improved the overall record of the Bobcats to 9-3. The Tigers fell to 6-5 with the loss.