A cold spell in the Twin Cities kept everyone off the hardwood Friday night. Junior varsity hoops got high school hoops jump started again. On Saturday there was the JV tournament hosted by Calvary Baptist followed by regularly-scheduled freshmen/JV hoops on Monday. In a stunner, the Evangel Eagles freshmen prevailed over the CBA JV to win the tournament title. If that is foreshadowing, this may be a week of surprises in Shreveport-Bossier.
Rivalry renewed
Tuesday night saw Huntington and Bossier renew their time-honored rivalry. This year’s edition was held on Rasberry Lane. The Raiders came in ranked 10th in the latest Division I Select rankings while Bossier came into the game rated 13th in Division II Non-Select. While these are not either team’s lofty expectations, they are representative of their play at present.
Huntington blitzed the visitors in the first quarter and led 19-2 after one. The Bearkats spent the next two quarters digging themselves out of that hole. At the end of the third quarter, they finally did just that. Kerel Dean-Woods hit a 3-pointer to give Bossier a 38-37 lead heading into the final eight minutes (barring overtime).
The fourth quarter was back-and-forth basketball –made shots mixed with turnovers. Finally, Huntington put together a string of free throws and began to slowly salt the game away. At the end, the Raiders finished off the Bearkats by the final score of 55-50.
New rankings released
Tuesday morning saw the latest release of the power rankings of the girls and boys in Louisiana. Parkway (Division I, Non-Select) is the top girls team in overall ratings while Calvary Baptist (Division III, Select) is the top-rated boys team overall.
Here are the ratings beginning with the girls playoff qualifiers as of today:
Division I, Non-Select
No. 2 Parkway, (4) Haughton, (11) Airline, (17) Benton, and (26) Northwood
Division I, Select
No. 3 Huntington, (8) Captain Shreve, and (14) Southwood
Division III, Select
No. 5 Calvary Baptist
Boys qualifiers
Division I, Non-Select
No. 21 Parkway, (25) Haughton
Division II, Non-Select
No. 13 Bossier
Division III, Non-Select
No. 18 Green Oaks
Division I, Select
No. 10 Huntington, (11) Captain Shreve, and (23) Evangel
Division II, Select
No. 19 BTW and (24) Loyola
Division III, Select
No. 1 Calvary Baptist
Coaching faces in new places
When Captain Shreve principal Bryant Sepulvado decided last offseason not to retain coach Corey Deans, he broke up one of the longest-tenured coaching groups in Shreveport-Bossier. Longtime assistants Don Cook and Daniel Harmon were now free to do other things outside of basketball.
Low and behold, basketball called them back, however. Cook, after looking into administration, became the head coach of the girls at Northwood High School. Harmon, after believing a master’s degree was his next calling, literally took the call of Betty Jordan (Southwood’s principal) to become the head man at his alma mater, Southwood.
Both coaches have had seasons with ups and downs thus far. After some early successes by the Cowboys, they are now 5-10 in Class 1-4A and Division I Select.
Northwood won an appeal and are now a Non-Select team. They are currently ranked No. 26 after a loss at home to Neville. The Lady Falcons are now 9-8 overall.
Friday will see the beginning of district play in 1-5A while other districts get prepared for district. Some local teams will travel down to Lincoln Prep and play in a new weekend classic.
Whatever happens, you will read about it here on the SBJ Prep Hoops Report.
Contact Preston at preston9360@gmail.com or via X: @peedee1906