By Bret H. McCormick
LAKE CHARLES – The Ruston Bearcats are never gonna give up their hopes of a boys basketball state championship.
And they certainly didn’t let the Bearcat faithful down Thursday night.
The second-seeded Bearcats pulled away in the second half Thursday night at Burton Coliseum, ripping off a 15-3 run to close the third quarter on their way to defeating No. 6 Central 71-57 in the Division I Non-Select semifinals.
It’s the Bearcats’ first berth in the state title game since they won the Class 4A championship in 1988 – when Rick Astley’s iconic “Never Gonna Give You Up” topped the charts.
The Bearcats (23-3) advanced to face No. 1 Zachary, which was a 74-59 winner over Denham Springs in Thursday’s first semifinal. The top two seeds will battle it out at 8 p.m. Saturday for the state championship.
Ruston made its third appearance in the past four years at the LHSAA’s Marsh Madness – the annual week-long tournament at Burton Coliseum consisting of semifinals and finals. But their two prior appearances ended in semifinal losses.
The Bearcats’ Big 3 of Darren Ford, Ahmad Hudson and Keshun Malcolm made sure the third time was a charm.
Ford, Ruston’s sensational sophomore point guard, scored a game-high 26 points, including 16 in the second half, when Ruston turned a slim three-point advantage into a double-digit blowout.
Malcolm, the junior left-handed sharpshooter, finished with 24 points on an efficient 9-for-12 shooting, including 3-for-4 from behind the 3-point arc, and the Bearcats’ dominant junior inside presence, Ahmad Hudson, added 19 points, 12 rebounds, seven steals and four blocks.
“I’ve been saying it all year, they all got unique talents,” Ruston second-year coach Marcus Jackson said. “When they play with each other and off of each other, we make good things happen. In the second half, we went in to Ahmad. He sealed; they doubled. We know they’re coming. We tell him they’re coming. Malcolm and Ford were able to knock down some shots and help spread it out. At that point, they had to play (Ahmad) 1-on-1, so when you’re playing him 1-on-1, it’s hard to do.”
“I knew playing in a new gym that the shots might not fall instantly,” Malcolm said, “so my plan was to see it go in one or two times before I stepped out and started shooting the 3. My shots were just falling today, and I’ll take it.”
The Bearcats won each of the first two quarters, though barely, and clung to a 26-23 lead at the half. Ford and Malcolm carried the bulk of the scoring burden in the first half with 10 points apiece.
Malcolm knocked down a clutch 3-pointer with 14 seconds left in the first quarter to put the Bearcats ahead by two, 14-12.
After clinging to the lead most of the half, the Bearcats fell behind late in the second quarter. However, Ford finished a tough drive to the basket through contact for a three-point play with 6.3 seconds left in the first half to give Ruston a three-point advantage going into the break.
Hudson slammed home two powerful dunks in the first half, but those were his only two baskets during the first 16 minutes of action as the Bearcats shot just 40 percent from the field.
Jackson described his team as “jittery” in the first half, but the Bearcats were able to calm down and refocus after halftime.
“I think in the second half, our defense led the offense and we kind of got in transition and opened the game up,” Jackson said. “Ahmad made his presence felt in the second half. He opened up everything else for us.”
“I pray every day to be in this situation and God put me in it, so I’m not going to take it for granted,” Hudson said. “I just had to shake off being nervous. I’ve been here. I’ve played here before. It’s just another game, just in a bigger environment.”
Central senior guard Jace Conrad, who led the Wildcats (24-7) with 20 points, knocked down a 3-pointer with 6:10 left in third quarter to give the Wildcats a 28-26 lead. Then the Bearcats’ Big 3 took over.
Malcolm knocked down a floater, while Hudson added one of two free throws – the only one of 22 free throws on the night that Ruston missed.
Ford knocked down a jumper, followed by two Malcolm free throws. Hudson turned one of his seven steals into a monstrous fastbreak dunk, which led to a Central technical foul. Ford hit the two free throws, and Malcolm drained a 3 on the ensuing possession.
At that point, the Bearcats had flipped the two-point deficit into a 12-point lead.
Central finally slowed the bleeding a bit by knocking down a 3-pointer with 1:26 left in the third quarter, but Ruston closed with another Hudson dunk and a Ford basket in the final minute. The Bearcats outscored Central 20-10 in the third quarter and took a 44-31 lead into the final period.
Back-to-back buckets by Malcolm in the fourth quarter gave the Bearcats a 20-point lead, and Hudson’s fifth dunk on the night, an emphatic slam off of two feet that brought the red-and-white-clad Bearcat fans to their feet, gave Ruston its biggest lead of the night at 59-38 with just over four minutes to play.
The Wildcats refused to fold, though, responding with a 6-0 run to make it a 15-point game with just over three minutes remaining. Central continued chipping away, trimming the deficit to 12 with 42 seconds left, but the Bearcats were able to ice the game with two Ford free throws and dribble out the clock.
“While we’re disappointed,” Central coach Scott Osborne said, “you look at (Ford) had 26, (Malcolm) had 24, (Hudson) had 19. We give our opponents their due credit.”
Hudson admitted he had some extra motivation Thursday night playing against Central, which defeated the Bearcats 42-0 for the 2024 state football championship.
“That was pretty embarrassing to go out there and do that,” Hudson admitted. “Just to be able to get the get-back for the seniors and the team before us, that felt great.“
Now the Bearcats shift their focus to Zachary, the No. 1 seed which has lost just twice all season, and a chance to win the school’s fifth state title.
“They’re athletic,” Jackson said of the Broncos. “They shoot the ball well. They’re fast. We can’t get into an up-and-down game with them. We’ve just got to go with the game plan that we went with in the second half (Thursday). We’ve got to pound it into Ahmad and see what they’re doing and be able to make shots outside off of it.”
