SM wins 1st playoff game since 2007

Published 6:00 am Sunday, March 1, 2015

ST. MARTINVILLE — If St. Martinville felt any pressure in looking for its first boys’ basketball playoff win since the Tigers reached the semifinals in 2007, it hardly showed.

Though the Tigers trailed the entire first quarter and much of the second, St. Martinville took the lead for good in the opening minute of the third quarter and pulled away late for a 75-64 bi-district win over Huntington Friday night at the SMSH gym.

“It’s been a long time,” St. Martinville coach Darrel Mitchell Sr. noted after the game.

Guard Bradley Savoy, one of four seniors who started Friday’s game for the Tigers, said the team’s experience showed. He was glad to get St. Martinville’s first playoff win after six straight first-round losses.

“We knew we had to fight hard because we always do that, start slow and come back and just turn it up and play hard,” Savoy said. “We’ve all been playing together since we were young, so we’ve got that chemistry with each other. When one’s playing bad we just pick each other up.”

Savoy matched fellow senior Keitha Bonhomme for scoring honors with 15 points and senior Drapper Anthony had 14. Kyle Landry joined the trio in double figures with 12 points.

“If one person’s on, he’ll let him (take over the scoring), but when we get out of hand, we give it to our big man to let him work down there because he’s a mismatch for everybody.”

The eighth-seeded Tigers improved to 25-8 and will play host to No. 9 seed Ellender Memorial in a regional playoff game Tuesday at 7 p.m. 

The ninth-seeded Patriots (24-7) beat St. Martinville’s District 5-4A rival Northside 62-59 on Friday.

Huntington hit two of its five 3-point shots in the first period in opening a 14-5 lead. SMSH stayed close by converting 10 of 14 free throws in the first quarter, including three of four by center Javante Walker in the opening 2½ minutes. The Raiders went just 3-for-8 from the line in the period.

“We knew they would foul a lot,” Mitchell said. “They play a lot of guys. We knew they would foul a lot, and they did. My big guy (Walker) made the free throws early, and the rest just followed suit. We shot them well.”

The fouls continued to mount in the second quarter for the Shreveport school, and SMSH went into halftime tied at 33-all after Savoy scored on a layup with less than a second remaining following a Huntington turnover. 

The Tigers finished the half 14-for-22 at the line and Huntington was 3-for-9.

Walker took over in the paint in the third quarter, grabbing a half-dozen rebounds and blocking six shots, including one that led to an Andre Doucet layup with 7:19 to go for a 35-33 lead. 

St. Martinville never trailed again, pushing its lead to 8 points on another Doucet layup following a Walker block, then to 9 points on a shot by Landry after yet another Walker block and a drive and dish by Deantre James. 

Landry finished the night with 8 points.

“They shot the ball well, and we said they would be aggressive, but they’re not very big and our big man did present a problem for them,” Mitchell said.

While St. Martinville took advantage of its free throws in the first half, Huntington was unable to do so when the tables were turned in the third quarter. The Raiders (17-13) got into the bonus with just under three minutes to go in the period but went just 3-for-9 from the stripe. 

The only bonus was sending Walker to the line with his fourth foul 18 seconds into the final period.

That made no difference, however, as the Tigers took their first double-digit lead with 4:45 left when Anthony drove a wide open lane for a layup, and pushed it as high as 15 points on a steal and layup by Anthony with 1:29 to go.

“We had control and we were in the 1-and-1, and I knew if we spread them out a little bit, they were not going to stay with us in the halfcourt set,” Mitchell said. 

“We got some lanes, and the shots they missed, we converted them into layups as well, so that helped. It was two-on-one and three-on-one, and that’s going to be hard to beat when somebody’s making layups.”

SMSH didn’t get into the bonus until the fourth quarter, and began to pull away with more fine free throw shooting after forcing Huntington to foul. 

The Tigers got into the double bonus (10 fouls against Huntington) with 5:25 to go, going 12-for-13 from the line in the quarter and 27-for-38 on the night (71 percent). Huntington finished 9-for-22 (41 percent).

“We shot them well,” Mitchell said. “That’s what we’ve got to do. Good teams have got to make free throws. That was to our advantage. 

“We didn’t have to shoot jump shots or anything else, just free throws down the stretch.”

Mitchell said that Cecilia shot 40 free throws against the Raiders in December, so he knew St. Martinville would get some fouls.

Demetrick Alexander led Huntington with 20 points, with Larry Moton added 13, including three 3-pointers, and Aaron Roberson finishing with 11 points.

Savoy said he is looking forward to the next game. 

The Tigers won the state championship in 2002 behind Darrel Mitchell Jr., who went on to play at LSU and overseas in the pros, but have gone just 4-12 in the postseason since, prior to Friday’s win.

“It’s been my dream all my life to win the state championship,” Savoy said. 

“So we’re going to play hard.”