ABBEVILLE — It was a rough night for Centerville High as the Bulldogs took on Vermilion Catholic in a District 8-A contest.

The Eagles jumped out to an early lead and never looked back in beating Centerville 72-37 as the Bulldogs fell to 3-6 overall and 0-2 in district.

“Vermilion Catholic came to play. I’ll give them that,” Centerville assistant coach Clarence Chapman said. “We studied film on them and we tried to capitalize on what we saw on film we just didn’t do our job at the beginning of the game.

“We’ve got to get better on man (-to-man) defense.”

It wasn’t much better in the opening game either as the Lady Bulldogs were crushed by Vermilion Catholic 61-20.

Chapman was coaching the team Tuesday night as head coach Jeremy Whittington was out with an illness.

Diamond Bourgeois had 16 points for Centerville in the loss.

Chapman said the Bulldogs have been struggling a little bit but things seem to be turning around as the season progresses.

“It’s been an up and down season,” Chapman said. “We have four seniors and the rest are underclassmen and some of them have never played organized basketball.

“Coach Whit has been working with the team to get them into the mindset of playing man defense, not just running around guarding someone but to play help side and deny defense as well. We still have the second half of the district left to play so we have time to turn things around and do something strong.”

Vermilion Catholic 61, Centerville 20

In the girls’ game, all but one player scored for VC as the Lady Eagles rebounded off of a tough loss Friday to Highland Baptist to beat the Lady Bulldogs.

Marley Moore and Karli Frith each had 8 points for VC while Kinsley Sellers led the team with 11 points.

Centerville was led by Niah Gunner with 8 points while Nyla Sgtephens and D’Irieyah Mitchell each had 6 points.