By T. Scott Boatright
Execution at critical times has at times been a thorn in the side of Lincoln Preparatory School boys basketball coach Antonio Hudson and his team this season.
That’s likely largely in part due to the fact that his Panthers are a young team with only one senior in forward Steven Burks III, a natural guard often forced to play in the post this season because of the need and his toughness.
And it was execution issues in the form of 27 turnovers and numerous missed free throws at clutch times that made the difference Wednesday as Crescent City defeated Lincoln Prep 62-55 in the semifinals of the Division IV Select School playoffs at Burton Coliseum in Lake Charles.
“It’s a team game and this is a team loss,” Panthers coach Antonio Hudson said following the game. “Steven played hard as he always does. This loss isn’t on him or any other single player. We couldn’t have made it back down here with him and his unselfish play.
“This team fought hard. It just didn’t happen for us today.”
Hudson saw an earlier precursor to the way the game would go right from the start. Both the Pioneers and Panthers turned the ball over on their first two possessions before a Burks layup off an assist from Trey Spann put the Panthers up 2-0.
The Panthers continued to struggle with ball control the rest of the way, committing 27 turnovers on the day.
“That;’s unacceptable in a semifinal game,” Hudson said. “You’re not going to win a championship doing that.”
Crescent City, which lost to Lincoln Prep 62-56 in a semifinals contest last year, led 16-13 at the end of the opening stanza and 33-24 at halftime.
Lincoln Prep struggled with foul issues as early as the first half, forcing Hudson to sit Burks for longer than he wanted early in the final stanza with four fouls and point guard Trumarion Smith fouling out down the stretch.
The Pioneers built the biggest lead of the —- 11 points — at 33-22 before a Burks jumper at the buzzer sent the Panthers into the locker room at intermission trailing by nine.
Lincoln Prep chipped away at Crescent City’s lead in the third quarter, shrinking it to three points at 42-39 heading into the final stanza, and a Burks free throw 22 seconds into that fourth quarter cut the Pioneers’ advantage to two at 42-40.
But Crescent City took over late, pushing its lead to eight points at 54-46 with 1:11 remaining and then connecting on six-of-seven attempts at the free-throw line in the final minutes to secure the win.
“Hat’s off to Crescent City, they made their shots when they needed to,” Hudson said. “We had our chances. We got it down to two points there in the fourth quarter and then we lost the ball on two turnovers and never overcame it.”
Burks led the Panthers, who finished their season at 19-8, with 18 points and 10 rebounds while Devin Burton chipped in with 12 points and 10 boards for fifth-seeded Lincoln Prep.
Crescent City’s Dwight McGee scored a game-best 25 points while adding eight steals.
The top-seeded Pioneers (23-5) will face the winner of Thursday’s semifinals contest between St. Martin’s and Hamilton Christian at 2 p.m. Saturday while the Panthers begin looking toward next season and trying to return to Marsh Madness for a sixth time over an eight-year timespan.
“Nobody expected us to be here after losing our two top scorers from last season, but this team never quit fighting and I’m proud of them for that,” Hudson said.
“And now we lose our top scorer from this season, but he’s the only one we lose. We’ll get back to the lab and down to work this summer and start working to try to get back here again.”
