Ten local teams earn boys' basketball playoff spots; six will play first games at home

LAFAYETTE — It’s not always how you start, it’s how you finish.

That was the case on Monday for St. Martinville Senior High in the Class 3A Top 28 boys basketball semifinals at the Cajundome.

The No. 11 Tigers fell behind by 10 points in the second quarter to No. 2 Wossman, and their top offensive threat, Datayvious Gabriel, missed his first six shots.

The 6-foot-5 senior, however, hit his next three and went on to score 29 points as the Tigers toppled the Wildcats, 56-49. SMSH now moves on to face No. 1 Madison Prep (22-3) in the finals on Thursday at Burton Coliseum in Lake Charles.

“It feels good,” said Gabriel, who finished 10-of-20 from the field. “My team believes in me. They just let me go with the ball and score. I knew my team wasn’t going to get down by that much. In the second quarter, I had to step it up.”

After he was off the mark early, Gabriel made his final three field goal attempts in the second quarter to pull the Tigers within 24-22 at the half.

In the fourth quarter, the Tigers (23-11) used an 11-4 run to finish off the Wildcats (25-3).

“You may or may not know, but Datayvious and I have been playing ball together since we were five or six years old,” SMSH senior guard Andrew Savoy said.

“When you see your brother balling out like that, you get excited to the fullest. Of course, you’re always taught to feed the hot hand, so that’s why we moved him to point guard in the second half.”

Gabriel was guarded closely by Wossman star guard Devonte Austin in the first half. Austin, who had a team-high 17 points, got into foul trouble, however, which forced the Wildcats to make an adjustment and play a slower forward on Gabriel.

“My eyes blew up,” Gabriel said of the defensive switch. “He was too big to guard me.”

When Austin fouled out with less than a minute remaining and his team down by four, the Tigers were able to put an exclamation point on yet another upset of a higher-seed.

“I knew tonight we were ready to play,” SMSH head coach Ihmaru Jones said. “And we’ll be ready to play Thursday night against Madison Prep and get some more revenge.”

In a preseason Hall of Fame game at NISH, the Tigers were routed by Madison Prep in a contest SMSH played without its football players, who were still participating in the playoffs.

“They beat us inside,” Jones said. “Their big guy (6-foot-9 sophomore Percy Daniels) had about 16 points. We have to put a stop to him. We’re going to try in various ways to defend him.

“Then we have to slow down that left-hander (guard Deziel Perkins). We have to make sure we know where he is. We have to make sure the game stays close. We can’t do what we did against Wossman where they got up by 10 points.”

Perkins had 24 points in the Chargers’ 48-32 win over No. 4 Carroll in the other 3A semifinals matchup on Monday. Madison Prep also brings four-star junior football prospect, Quency Wiggins (6-7, 265) off the bench.

“The whole thing depends on getting defensive rebounds because everybody is bigger than us,” Jones said. “We’re from the little town of St. Martinville. Everybody is bigger than us.”