By Kyle Roberts
RUSTON, La. — Basketball season may be in full swing, but the Ruston Bearcats (1-4) finally had a home opener Tuesday night, and the team did not disappoint in getting a 65-40 victory in front of a raucous crowd over the Airline Vikings (2-8).
Leading 28-20 at halftime, the Bearcats outscored the Vikings 20-5 in the third quarter for the first win of the 2024-25 season, while getting a terrific performance out of sophomores Keshun Malcolm and Ahmad Hudson, who is among the football players who have returned to the hardwood.
“It was good to have a couple more bodies to go to,” Ruston High assistant coach Corey Deans said. “It was really good to get a win here this evening. We have a lot of stuff to clean up, and we’ll come back to work and fix all these things.”
Ruston fell behind by as many as seven points, trailing 14-7 in the first quarter after Airline’s senior Jaydan Gladney scored all of the Vikings 14 points opening stanza. Hudson had a couple of thunderous dunks in the first half to go along with Malcolm’s 10 points through two quarters. The Bearcats led 28-20 going into the halftime locker room.
In the third, Airline had no answer for Ruston’s offense as the Bearcats led 48-25 heading into the fourth.
Malcolm would finish with 16 points on the night, while Hudson added 15. C.J. Malone added 10. Deans said he was pleased with the way Malcolm played Tuesday given the addition of the football players back to the lineup.
“I told (Keshun) that I want him to take the same shots he’s been taking this year,” Deans said. “I don’t care if he has Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen on his team — we need him to be aggressive and try to go get 30 points a game.”
Coming back to the lineup Tuesday with Hudson were seniors Joran Parker and Fabian Stringfellow. Both seniors Zheric Hill and Aidan Anding were on the bench in street clothes due to injury concerns from football.
Ruston will play Red River in the Remington Butler Classic this weekend.
Bearcat Scoring FG(3FG)-FT-TP
Zaterrion Sutton 1 – 2-2 = 4
Joran Parker 2 – 1-4 = 3
Ahmad Hudson 7 – 1-4 = 15
Jasen Morgan 1 – 1-1 = 3
Keshun Malcolm 6(1) 3-5 = 16
C.J. Malone 3(2) 2-2 = 10
Kayden Gray 4 – 0-2 = 8
Mason Delaney 0 – 3-6 = 3
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