By Kyle Roberts
RUSTON, La. — Winter-weather apparently had no impact on the No. 2 Ruston High Bearcat basketball squad (13-3) after being cooped up inside and away from the gym for more than a week.
Facing off with the top team in Non-Select, Division IV in the RHS Main Gym Monday, the Bearcats used an explosive first quarter to set the tone for the night and gave the Ferriday Trojans (21-2) their second loss of the season by a final score of 77-41.
“That was a good team we played,” Ruston High Head Coach Marcus Jackson said. “I was suprised (by how we played) since we’ve been out of the gym for seven days. It wasn’t as crisp as I wanted, but we made some played, defended hard in sections and came out with a victory over a pretty good team.”
After the Trojans took a 5-3 lead with 6:49 to go in the first quarter, Ruston’s defense held Ferriday scoreless over the next five minutes, 37 seconds after putting up a 16-0 run thanks in large part to multiple steals, dunks and put-backs of of offensive rebounds.
The Trojans, however, would get a 7-0 run of their own in the second quarter to keep the game from getting out of hand and cut Ruston’s lead to 30-17 after three made free throws by DeMarcus Mitchell with 4:37 to go before the half. The Bearcats, however would outscore the Trojans 14-7 for the rest of the half to lead 44-24 heading into the third.
By halftime, sophomore guard Darren Ford had 17 points by himself and finished with 22 points total.
In the third quarter, tempers began to flare on the Ferriday bench, which amassed two technical fouls well after the game was beyond reach for a Trojan comeback. And with a thunderous dunk by junior Ahmad Hudson at the end of the third, it was a running clock for the remainder of the game en route to a Ruston victory.
Ford led all scorers with 22 points, while Hudson finished with 20 points with 10-12 shooting from the free throw line. Junior KeShun Malcolm finished with 13 points after scoring 10 in the first half.
“Our guys are peaking at the right time,” Jackson said. “Last week set us back a little bit, but if they all understand that tonight could be one of their nights and the next night could be someone else’s — if we can share that theme and play off each other, we can be hard to beat.”
Ruston and Ouachita will play their makeup district games Wednesday, Feb. 4, with the varsity girls scheduled to tip off at 5:30 p.m. and the boys tipping off right after.
