ST. MARTINVILLE — When his team wins, New Iberia Senior High head coach Todd Russ still doesn’t hesitate to criticize his team.

That was certainly the case Saturday when his team took a 50-45 decision over St. Martinville Senior High in overtime.

“We were punch drunk off last night’s win over Ellender,” Russ said. “We came in here, and I don’t know why we took St. Martinville as lightly as we did because that’s a really quality team.

“I felt like we weren’t locked in. We beat a really good team last night and for some reason, we were acting surprised that we beat a good team — knowing that we had another good team waiting in the wings tonight.”

NISH (12-5) held its largest lead of the contest when Allen Walker finished a strong drive to the basket to put the Yellow Jackets up 29-22 at the 3:25 mark of the third quarter.

The Tigers (12-8) responded with a 7-0 run and the hosts then grabbed the lead for the first time when Jalen Mitchell fed 6-3 junior Brandon Singleton for an inside basket to make the score 31-29 at the end of the third.

NISH’s big guns — Allen Walker and Jaterrius Fusilier — scored all 11 points of their team’s points in the fourth quarter, which concluded with the score tied 40-40.

In OT, Mitchell hit a field goal and had a chance for a 3-point play, but his free throw missed the mark and the Yellow Jackets scored the next 10 points.

“It was a good game,” SMSH head coach Imaru Jones said. “We shouldn’t have gone into overtime. We should have won it at the free throw line.

“And then we had the opportunity when it was 42-40, if we would have gotten that defensive rebound, they would have had to foul us and we’re on the line. But we didn’t get the rebound, we ended up fouling and they ended up tying the score.”

The Tigers, who will get star forward Datavious Gabriel back from a 14-day quarantine today, were led by Davontre Alexander’s 14 points.

“He’s been coming along,” Jones said of the senior. “We’ve been working with him. You saw him do some spin moves and go up and under. We’ve been working with him to post up a little more and knock down some baseline shots.”

Jones expected a close, physical game vs. the Yellow Jackets.

“It’s that type of game where it’s going to be bang them up, bang them up,” he said. “Tight all the way through. Lead changes, and it’s going to be a tough game because that’s a disciplined team.”

Fusilier, who led all scorers with 20, scored 6 points in OT and was 4-for-4 from the line, and Walker added 13.

“We go as our seniors — Jaterrius Fusilier, Brennan Chatman and Allen Walker go — and they were bad,” Russ said. “Make sure you print it. They didn’t lead like they’re supposed to, and that’s what’s going to happen.

“When those three guys are locked in and playing well, we can play with anybody in the state. But when they’re not, we struggle, and against a good team, we got lucky to go on the road and steal this win.”

When asked about any positives he took away from the contest, Russ said there was only one.

“We won,” he said. “That’s it. We got out-rebounded, out-hustled, out-played and out-executed.

“They were more focused and ready to play than we were, so we had to fight to go to overtime to steal the win. The only positive is that we won.”