WHS takes care of Chiefs

Published 5:30 am Sunday, February 25, 2018

Top-seeded Westgate High School wasn’t going to overlook its first-round opponent in the LHSAA boys’ basketball playoffs, not after coaches stressed that point heading into Friday night’s home bi-district game against No. 32 seed West Ouachita.

The Tigers (20-5) took those warnings to heart with a resounding 75-36 win over the visiting Chiefs, jumping out to a 10-0 lead in the Westgate Coliseum before outscoring West Ouachita 23-2 in the second quarter and pulling away in the second half to set up a second-round matchup with Plaquemine.

Westgate head coach Oliver Winston said a tough first-round matchup in 2017 against No. 30 seed Warren Easton — third-seeded WHS won 74-67 — was enough for the Tigers to maintain their focus against an opponent that, on paper at least, wouldn’t be much of a test.

“We definitely preached not to overlook anybody,” Winston said. “Last year we were a third seed and we got down pretty quick, and so we definitely tried to preach to come out and try to take care of business. They’re going to try their hardest so we need to put forth effort, and I think we did a decent job tonight.”

Defense again sparked the Tigers, who struggled to shoot early but still built a double-digit midway through the first quarter. Keith Lopez augmented Westgate’s defensive pressure with a couple of blocks on consecutive shot attempts with just over three minutes to go to keep the Chiefs scoreless before Tate Boatner finally broke the drought for WOHS (12-18) with a 3-point basket at the 3:05 mark of the opening period. Westgate led 17-9 after one quarter with the Chiefs hitting three 3-pointers in the final 3:05, two by Boatner and one by Kam Harris.

Several younger players got extensive playing time for the Tigers, even before both teams started substituting liberally in the fourth quarter. Keydrain Calligan, Devondre Butler and Tyrell Antoine were among the non-starters seeing extended minutes for Westgate.

Calligan contributed 13 points on the offensive end in the second quarter while helping shut down Boatner after the first quarter — the West Ouachita guard didn’t score again after hitting those two 3-pointers in the closing minutes of the opening period.

“We knew we were going to use some of those young guys to speed up the game. We knew they didn’t like that kind of pace of a game, so we knew we had two or three young kids we could bring off the bench and just get after the ball,” Winston said. “They did a really good job tonight of just getting after the ball and just making them unsettled, because they’re a good-shooting team, but they’re a set-shooting team. So we never wanted to let them get in a rhythm or get them comfortable where they felt they were good.”

West Ouachita actually outshot Westgate from outside the arc, hitting eight 3-pointers to Westgate’s seven, but the Tigers limited WOHS to only five other baskets. Westgate hit 21 buckets from inside the arc and outscored the Chiefs 12-6 from the foul line.

After both squads struggled to score in the opening minutes of the second quarter, Westgate began pulling away, getting the lead to 20-9 on a steal and layup by Calligan with 5:47 to go. West Ouachita trimmed it to 20-11 20 seconds later but Calligan’s drive and basket with 5:22 made it an 11-point lead and the Chiefs couldn’t get to within 10 points after that.

Calligan made it a 20-point lead with 2:33 to go after stealing an inbound pass and then putting back his own miss for a 31-11 lead.

The Tigers pushed it to a 31-point advantage with 2:34 to go on a 3-point basket, and were up 53-23 at the end of three periods. 

A long 3-pointer by Zye Narcisse with 1:43 to go gave Westgate its biggest edge at 40 points — 75-35 — before the Chiefs hit one of two free throws with 1:20 remaining for the final margin. The Tigers ran out the final minute-plus without attempting a shot.

Tyron Chevalier led Westgate with 17 points, including a pair of 3-pointers. Calligan had 15 with two treys and Keyvie Eddie also hit two 3-pointers and finished with 10 points. Deondre Spencer had 9 points and Lopez had six blocked shots. Eleven players scored for the Tigers.

Harris led West Ouachita with 9 points. Cain Burdeaux added 8 and Boatner had 6 with the next highest scoring getting 4.

Winston said that defensive effort will be critical for Westgate in the playoffs.

“That’s kind of key when you get in the playoffs, because you’re going to have an off night (offensively), but defense is effort, so as long as we keep that level of defensive intensity, we’ll see how far it goes,” he said.

Winston said the Tigers’ next game would be a tough test whether it was No. 16 seed Plaquemine (22-9) or No. 17 seed Ellender (12-16). The Green Devils won 84-70 to set up a matchup Tuesday at Westgate.