By T. Scott Boatright
The Lincoln Preparatory School boys basketball team made a list of five goals to accomplish before the 2025-26 season started.
So far, the Panthers have reached four of them, but the biggest and most elusive so far still lies ahead.
The Panthers roared past Ouachita Christian 59-40 at home Friday night to earn a fifth straight trip to March Madness and a semifinal berth in the Division IV Select School Playoffs.
Now the Panthers turn their focus toward something they’ve never accomplished under the moniker of Lincoln Prep — capture a state championship.
“By the grace of God, we’ve been able to do that,” Panthers coach Antonio Hudson said of earning a fifth straight trip to the championship tournament in Lake Charles. “Now we just have to figure out how to finish it.”
The first half went the way most of Lincoln Prep’s games have gone this season — defensive domination by the Panthers, who led 8-7 at the end of the opening stanza and 22-11 at halftime.
And the Panthers hit the first basket of the third quarter 45 seconds in on a putback by Devin Shine, who scored all six of his points in that stanza.
But the Eagles pulled within striking distance at nine points down at 26-17 at the 5:20 mark of the period on a baseline layup by D’sian Bradshaw, who hit a short jumper at the buzzer to make a 13-point game at 39-26 in Lincoln Prep’s favor heading into the fourth quarter.
“That’s our best deal — our best style of game,” Hudson said of the defensive start his team got off to. “We’ve played some really good teams, but I think OCS is one of the best defensive teams that we’ve played. In the half-court set it’s hard for people to get locked in, and we did that in the first half.
“Toward the end of the third quarter I think we got kind of lax because we got comfortable with the lead. We gave up more layups than anything in the third quarter, and that’s unacceptable. That’s not the way to win a championship. But we’re going back down to (Marsh Madness) again, and that’s a good thing.”
The Eagles remained within striking distance for the first four minutes of the final stanza, cutting it to 11-point lead for Lincoln Prep on one of two technical foul free throws when the Panthers were hit with a tech for taunting with 4:17 remaining.
But before any more time ran off, the Eagles were hit with a technical foul of their own, with Lincoln Prep’s Jabari Levingston hitting one-of-two of his free throws to push the Panthers’ lead back to 12 at 46-34.
The game also started with a technical foul before the opening jump that OCS hit one of two free throws on to take a 1-0 lead before the clock started.
“We’ve been running out the same way all year, but they said we couldn’t run out under their goal,” Hudson said. “I never heard of that, but you know, they know more than we do.”
After the fourth quarter technical fouls exchange, the Panthers then went on a 9-0 run to pull away for good with their biggest lead coming at 21 points with 1:14 remaining on an Alley Opp pass from Trey Spann to Zion Hicks, who caught the ball under the net and bounced it smoothly off the backboard for the score.
Levingston and Hicks both double-doubled for Lincoln Prep, with Levingston chalking up 22 points, 13 rebounds, eight steals, six assists and a blocked shot while Hicks recorded 21 points, 14 boards, three assists, two steals and two blocked shots.
Hudson declined to take part in the net-cutting ceremony, letting senior Kaden Vernon completely remove it from the rim.
The win was especially meaningful for the Panthers’ three seniors — Trey Spann, who totaled six points, five assists, one rebound and one steal — along with Hicks and Vernon.
“I want to win the championship for the players who played in front of me who didn’t get this chance I’m going to get, and for all the people who have supported us,” Hicks said.
In a postgame locker room talk, Panthers assistant coach Yum D. Pujoe told the team they had now accomplished four of those preseason goals, with one remaining.
“The first was to win or 25 or more games (the Panthers are 28-0), No. 2 was to win district, No. 3 was to go undefeated at home (where Lincoln Prep went 15-0) the fourth was to finish the season at No. 1 (which the Panthers have been since season’s start),” Pujoe said. “Now we only have one goal left — win the state championship.”
After the game, Hudson said the Panthers’ final goal is the only one that matters.
“We gotta get it,” Hudson said. “It’s for the community, too. In some ways, it’s selfish of us, but it’s for the team, because we’ve got to prove that we can get it done. We’ve been down there so many times and have come back empty handed. We’ve got to make it happen. I want to cut the net down in Lake Charles. That’s why I didn’t want to do it tonight. I want to do it down there.”
Top-seeded Lincoln Prep will take on fourth seed Central Catholic Tuesday, March 10, at 1 p.m.
