St. Martinville falls to Madison Prep in 3A championship game

Published 9:15 pm Thursday, March 11, 2021

St. Martinville Senior High rallied from a double-digit deficit in the third quarter to take the lead heading into the fourth period, but top-seeded Madison Prep outscored the Tigers 17-11 in the final eight minutes to claim a 52-47 win in the Class 3A boys’ basketball state championship game Thursday in Lake Charles.

SMSH (23-10) was playing in its first championship game in almost 20 years — future LSU standout Darrel Mitchell Jr. led the Tigers to the 2001 Class 4A championship — and was seeded 11th in the Class 3A playoffs this year.

St. Martinville polished off No. 22 Donaldsonville 67-53 in the first round, then won three straight against higher seeded teams — 55-41 over No. 6 Ville Platte, 61-58 over No. 3 Sophie B. Wright and 56-49 against No. 2 Wossman, which was 25-2 at the time.

Datayvious Gabriel, who hit three 3-pointers, finished with a team-high 17 points for St. Martinville in the finals. Jalen Mitchell, who had two 3-pointers, added 10 points and Harvey Broussard had 9, including one 3-pointer.

Madison Prep (24-3) led 13-12 after one quarter and 26-22 after two before SMSH rallied for a 36-35 lead after three periods.

Dezie’l Perkins had 17 points to lead Madison Prep, including a pair of 3-pointers. Kevon Shannon added 12 points with a pair of 3-pointers and Percy Daniels had 10 points.