Raymond Bonnette of Loreauville (3) shoots over Berwick’s Palmer Cox (5) on Tuesday. - Lee Ball / The Daily Iberian

LOREAUVILLE — Paul Reed wanted his boys’ basketball team to be more aggressive against Berwick than the Tigers had been in a loss to Central Catholic the previous night.

Loreauville responded by using its height advantage and athletic ability to outmuscle Berwick Tuesday, turning a 3-point game after one quarter into a 59-28 blowout win.

“Pressure basketball,” said Reed of his gameplan. “We had a tough one last night against Central Catholic over here. We played a half. Tonight we played four quarters. And we didn’t get anyone in foul trouble. That was big.”

Loreauville led 6-0 early after 3-pointers by John Reed and Quincy Wiltz, but Berwick rallied and stayed within a few points the rest of the quarter, trimming the Tigers’ lead to a single point four times in the period.

But LHS (3-5) held the Panthers scoreless for nearly six minutes from late in the first quarter to past the midway point of the second quarter, expanding its lead from 16-13 at the quarter break to double digits (25-13) before BHS scored again. Berwick finished the second quarter with only 4 points, and Loreauville led 33-17 at halftime.

BHS coach John Menard said his young team, with only one senior, had trouble with the physical play of the game. After the Panthers’ dry stretch of 5:55 over the first and second quarters, Berwick also went 4:50 without a point from the 1:52 mark of the second quarter to the 5:02 mark of the third.

“I thought at the beginning of the game we were playing well and playing smart,” said Menard. “Things started getting a little physical in the second quarter, and that threw us off our game. It started snowballing from there.”

The Panthers couldn’t match up inside against Wiltz and Kyle Francois, among others. Francois led the Tigers with 22 points, 11 in each half, frequently either getting the ball on the offensive glass or on a dish from a teammate, including a one-handed slam dunk off a fast-break, alley-oop pass from Raymond Bonnette in the third quarter.

That jam came after a steal by Bonnette, who saved the ball from going out of bounds by tossing it back to Francois, starting a two-on-one break. Francois passed back to Bonnette, who pulled up and lobbed the ball to Francois for the stuff, giving the Tigers a 40-22 lead at the 3:08 mark of the third period.

Bonnette finished with 15 points, while Nick Julien had 7.

“We’ve played people that are physical (before),” Menard said. “We just lost our heads out there.”

Devin Tabor led Berwick (0-11) with 9 points, 7 in the first half, and Nick Canty added 5.

Paul Reed said his team is still finding a rhythm, with several players still trying to get their basketball legs after finishing up football season.

“We’ve only played eight games,” said Reed. “It’s coming. We’ve played some tough teams, Centerville, Morgan City, Central Catholic. I like that. That’s going to help us later.”

LHS plays in the Ruston tournament this week.

Loreauville 36, Berwick 32

The Lady Tigers put together an amazing rally to beat Berwick in the girls’ game.

Loreauville trailed 20-13 at halftime and was still behind late in the fourth quarter but outscored BHS 15-7 in the final period for the win.

Tyler Gaddison scored 10 of her game-high 19 points in the fourth quarter for LHS. Dante Zacharie and Jermania Antoine added 7 points each for the Lady Tigers, who went 10-for-15 at the free throw line for the night.

Hayleigh Wilkinson had 13 points to lead Berwick and Abigail Ohlin added 10. Khadijah Johnson scored 6 for the Lady Panthers.

Loreauville is off until Dec. 21, when the Lady Tigers travel to Church Point.