By Kyle Roberts
Ruston High’s basketball squads both picked up road wins Monday night on the road with the girls beating Arcadia 65-45 and the boys following with a 76-55 win.
The girls had a bounce back performance after dropping a game to Neville last weekend with seniors Jaliyah McWain and Zaccheya Jackson scoring 23 and 22 points, respectively.
“Arcadia is a talented and well coached team so we knew we had to bring our A game with us,” Ruston head coach Meredith Graf said. “The word for us tonight was “compete.” We haven’t played to our standard the past couple of games so we wanted to prove to ourselves that we could get back on track. It was a physical game and in a tough environment but I thought we stayed focused the entire game and locked in on executing. I think our team responded tonight and now we need to keep that same energy moving forward.
The boys would benefit immediately from the return of the varsity football players who had previously won the 2023 Division I, Non-Select state championship less than two days prior.
“The guys coming from football where tremendous,” Ruston bearcat head coach Ryan Bond said. “It was amazing to watch them play basketball 48 hours after winning a state football title.”
Junior Aidan Anding led the way with 15 points, while senior Zhy Scott finished with 14. Junior Joran Parker added 13 points, while senior Fabo Stringfellow totaled 11 on the night.
Ruston returns to action Thursday, Dec. 14, to take on Wossman in the Remington Butler Classic. The varsity girls will tip off first at 6 p.m. with the boys following at 7:30 p.m.
