Senior JayVyn Duncan flies down the court. 

Harvey Broussard, Jevion Sam and JayVyn Duncan had their usual big outings, but it was Delian Mallery who was the man of the hour in St. Martinville’s Division II non-select first-round playoff game against No. 28 DeRidder on Friday.

Mallery, who is averaging 6.6 points per game, exploded for a career high 24 as the fifth-seeded Tigers smashed the Dragons 87-45.

“It was unexpected,” Mallery said. “My teammates got me involved. I’m not usually a scorer. I’m usually a playmaker as a role player.”

Mallery’s offensive outburst occurred over a span of approximately 20 minutes. The junior didn’t score in the first quarter, which ended with the Tigers comfortably ahead 24-9.

In the second quarter, he made 3 of 4 field goals and sank a pair of free throws as the lead increased to 44-25 at intermission.

Mallery turned it all the way up in the third quarter, making all five of his shots from the floor before adding six fourth-quarter points. With the Tigers ahead 77-41, coach Ihmaru Jones emptied his bench with a running clock as the final minutes ticked off.

“It felt good scoring that much,” said Mallery, whose previous career high was 20 points. “I noticed a mismatch. They couldn’t guard me, so I took advantage of it.”

“He’s been doing a fantastic job in all of our practices and scrimmages,” Broussard said of Mallery. “I already knew this was coming.”

Duncan, Broussard and Sam all scored in double-figures. Duncan had 22 points. Broussard added 17 with Sam scoring 15.

The Tigers put together a complete game on both ends of the floor. Semont Fairley scored 25 points for DeRidder (13-17), but he had to work hard for it. The junior, who made 9 of 23 field goals with six 3-pointers, scored 17 points in the first half.

SMSH (22-11) grabbed 21 defensive rebounds while distributing 14 assists with 10 steals and eight blocked shots.

“The game-plan was to go into a half-court or three-quarter trap and keep them from running their offense,” Jones said. “We wanted them to have to throw the ball over the top of our defense.”

Broussard gathered seven rebounds and blocked five shots with three assists and three steals.

“We communicated, boxed out, got a lot of rebounds and second-chance points,” Broussard said. “We came together as a team. That’s all coach asked of us: to come together as a team and buy in.”

The Tigers will host No 12 Plaquemine (20-12) on Tuesday. The Green Devils thumped Crowley 65-41 in the first round.