By Malcolm Butler
Ryan Bond is as happy as anyone that many of his Bearcat basketball players were able to be a part of the Ruston High state championship football team this fall.
And now he is happy to have them back.
But he knows it will take a while for the core group of the Bearcats to get their sea legs under them on the hardwood.
On Thursday night at Scotty Roberson Memorial Gym, Bond and Co. ran into a talented Wossman team an came away with a 68-52 loss.
“It’s difficult to say the least,” said Bond. “Wossman is a good team. They get good players every year, every single year. They are a good team and they have been together for about three weeks and we have been together for about three days.
“It’s not the end of the world. It’s still the second week of December. We still have a lot of games in front of us.”
Aiden Anding and Zhy Scott and Joren Parker and Ahmad Hudson and Zheric Hill were all standing on the carpet of the Caesar’s Superdome on Saturday night following the Bearcats state title win. Now, they are being asked to run up and down the court for 32 minutes — something that will take a while to jell.
“It’s difficult not having these guys most of the summer or any August, September, October, November.,” said Bond. “It’s difficult. But we are going to get there. We are going to keep working. That’s the beauty of basketball. We will bounce back and play tomorrow. We have to learn from this.”
Anding led the Bearcats Thursday night with 17 points, but Ruston couldn’t overcome Jordan Comanche’s 20 points and Krystian Lewis’ 19 points as the Wildcats improved to 9-2 on the season. Wossman entered the game ranked No. 2 in Class 4A in power points.
Wossman ran up and down the floor and Ruston matched the effort for much of the night. However, the Wildcats used a 13-0 run midway through the fourth quarter to blow open the game and pull away for the victory.
“People say, ‘Hey, they are going to be in great shape after playing football.’ No,” said Bond. “They are not in (basketball) shape. Guys got tired. Our effort was okay. It’s a work in progress. The last three years our core guys were basketball only, but this year it wasn’t.”
Scott added eight points and Parker seven points for the Bearcats in the loss.
“We have a lot of talent, and we have a lot of fighters and a lot of leaders and a lot of winners,” said Bond. “Every one of them are winners. We will bounce back.”
Earlier in the day, the Lady Bearcats fell 72-41 to Wossman.
