By Kyle Roberts
Twenty-fifth seeded Barbe High School had no answer for true freshman Ahmad Hudson for the No. 8 Ruston High Friday night after a 19-points, 14-rebound and six-block performance that led the Bearcats to a 62-34 win in Memorial Gym.
“He’s a special talent,” Ruston High head coach Ryan Bond said about Hudson. “The guys know how important he is– not only on the offensive end, but on the defensive end. I’ve said it before. We can get out there and we can pressure, and we know he’s going to clean up a lot.”
Hudson’s offense jumpstarted the Bearcats as he scored the team’s first six points. In the first quarter alone, Hudson had eights points, five rebounds and four blocked shots, helping keep the Buccaneer offense to a low-scoring five points in the first quarter.
The Bearcats would outscore the Buccaneers 14-8 in the second quarter to take a 31-13 lead into the halftime locker room.
“I’m happy that we won, but it was good, not great,” Bond said. “I think my it was a byproduct of being off for seven days or six days, and I think a part of it is that (Barbe) was a familiar opponent. We knew they’d graduated several kids. They’re a good little scrappy team. And we knew from watching film that they weren’t going to quit. They’re a younger bunch– we knew that we’re not going to stop playing.
“But I’m happy, but we’re going to have to pick it up for Tuesday night– whoever the opponent is down the road, it’s just going to get more and more difficult.”
Barbe would string together a 9-2 run in the third quarter to pull back to within 15 to trail Ruston 37-22, but it would not be nearly enough as Ruston hold on to get the blowout win.
Ruston would also get a 15-point performance from senior Trey Dimmer and a 10-point performance from senior Aidan Anding, who uncharacteristically did not have a made three-pointer all night.
“I wish we could clone Aiden on the defensive end,” Bond said. “We’ve got good defenders, but Aiden’s on another level, defensively. He’s playing at a really high level. He didn’t score a lot of points tonight like he did last Saturday, but he was awesome.”
The Bearcats will play No. 9 H. L. Bourgeois after their 67-64 win over No. 24 Central Lafourche, Tuesday, Feb. 27, at 6 p.m. in Memorial Gym.
