Hornets take second place in state playoffs

A reader told me that the Hornets don’t seem to be letting up during the playoffs. 

I replied that on the contrary, they seemed to be turning up a notch or two.  This seems pretty evident with them breaking a hundred in each game.  You could readily expect this against Welsh the #32 seed.  No problem there, but when Oakdale #16 came to town you would expect more competition  Didn’t get it 109-57.

Then when #9 Morris Jeff Community out of the heart of New Orleans came in you felt this could really be tough, not so.  Even though they were much, much better that the two previous opponents, they lost by even a bigger margin 130-56.

How can you explain it?  I am not sure you can except maybe they are a much better team than anybody knows. Of course being #1 which allowed them to play the first three games at home, didn’t hurt.

I was one for two in predictions last week. I thought we would score a hundred points against Franklin. We didn’t. I said we would beat them and play in the final. We did. We beat them 76-67 in a game much closer than the score indicated. We were down one at the end of the first quarter and led by only two 37-35 at the end of the first half.

Franklin quickly tied it up at the start of the third. Then Natt made a field goal at 7:05 left in the third  and went up 39-37. The Hornets never trailed after that though Franklin did get within two again at 4:10 44-42.

The announcers on the broadcast said that Kashie Natt put the team on his shoulders with 27 points and over 20 rebounds offensively and defensively. Cowart had 16 and Percy, 11 for 11 at the free throw line, had 15. Qualls added 91, Butler 7 and Ellis 2. Final score 76-67.

That’s the end of the good news. 

Port Allen 54, Rayville 45. Explain it. I can’t. 

Port Allen was easily the best team on the court this game, but if they played again I would bet on Rayville. It was a case of everybody having an off night. It was one of the hardest defeats I, and evidently others, have ever experienced.

Sheldon Jones, superintendent of Richland schools, did a little research trying to ease the pain. In the last five years, he said, Rayville High has had two state championships and three runners up.

As school board member, Marie Lewis said, “Not bad for a little country school.”

Now we can wait until next year.