Bulldogs notch massive area road wins
BY DANIEL SCHMIDT
THE LAFAYETTE SUN
LAFAYETTE — On a night that featured a special homecoming, the LaFayette High School girls and boys basketball teams on Jan. 8 both notched area wins at Loachapoka High School, with the Lady Bulldogs defeating the Lady Indians 59-45 and the Bulldogs defeating the Indians 47-45.
Following those victories, the Lady Bulldogs and Bulldogs improved their records to 5-11 and 14-7, respectively. The Lady Indians and Indians fall to 8-9 and 9-7, respectively.
Lady Bulldogs 59, Lady Indians 45
After having left Loachapoka in 2023, LaFayette girls head basketball coach Travis Carswell knew his team would face stiff competition. His familiarity with many of the Lady Indians’ players from when they were in junior high helped proved to be a deciding factor when developing the game plan.
“[It was] a tough win against a good team at their home,” Carswell said. “It was kind of a homecoming for me because I used to coach here three years ago. I knew that they were going to come out here and play tough, which we knew from watching film on them. But we’ve got a good team as well.”
Despite enjoying a comfortable margin of victory, the result was in question for much of the fourth quarter. Those wild score changes came as the Lady Bulldogs and Lady Indians battled back and forth, putting impressive scoring runs together in the third and fourth quarters, respectively.
“It’s all about momentum changes,” Carswell said. “Everyone knows that in basketball, you’re going to have swings in momentum. We were just trying to keep the pressure on them because I knew they had one or two ball handlers.”
In the end, the winning formula was simple according to eighth-grade guard and team captain Skyy Boston, who scored a game-high 29 points for the Lady Bulldogs and forced Loachapoka to defend every inch of the court and pounce when ready.
“[It’s about] spacing. Basically, when I run the play, I’ve got to keep moving. And then if you see the opportunity to score, you’ve got to take it,” Boston said. “We’ve just got to keep going, just keep winning and not back down. And keep the effort up. It feels good. I feel like we came to play.”
With both teams scoring close to 40 total points per game on average, the contest began as a blistering back-and-forth affair with plenty of turnovers as players fought to force plays. Loachapoka’s Essense Key particularly played a big role in the post to help the Lady Indians keep pace with LaFayette’s plentiful second-chance scoring opportunities.
Down 19-18 entering the second quarter, the Lady Bulldogs opted to switch to a full-court press, which led to even better scoring opportunities in the opening minutes of the second quarter. As LaFayette opened a slight lead, Loachapoka found themselves unable to convert quality scoring opportunities at the rim into points.
Despite the Lady Indians doing well to close the gap late in the quarter by making most of their free throw attempts, the Lady Bulldogs held a 27-22 entering halftime.
That scoring advantage only widened after LaFayette cashed in two quick three-pointers to start the third quarter. Sensing that momentum was on their side, the Lady Bulldogs turned up the heat on their full-court press, flustering Loachapoka en route to a 12-0 run in the opening three minutes. As the fourth quarter began, LaFayette held a 49-28 lead.
Just when it seemed that the Lady Bulldogs would return home with a dominant victory, the Lady Indians worked their way back into the game by playing much better defense and making several shots in a row. However, despite having their lead cut to seven points with 3:20 left in the game, Boston’s performance at the free-throw line delivered LaFayette a crucial win.
In addition to Boston’s 29 points, Kennedi Williams contributed eight points as the Lady Bulldogs’ second-leading scorer.
Amanda Harris paced Loachapoka with 16 points, and Key and Vennecia Cobb both chipped in nine points apiece.
Bulldogs 47, Indians 45
After defeating bitter rivals Lanett High School in the season’s first area game on Jan. 2, LaFayette head boys’ basketball coach Chase Lewis said his team needed to win every home game and steal wins on the road to finish first. The Bulldogs did just that by holding on in an imperfect win that tested their competitive character.
“It felt good. It was an ugly win for us,” Lewis said. “But sometimes, like I told them a minute ago, your favorite basketball team or favorite football team, they have ugly wins. This right here was our ugly win. And the most important thing about ugly wins is that you find out that your team still has fight in them. So we still have fight.”
In pressure-packed games throughout the season, LaFayette’s star power at guard has typically led the way. This time, however, it was the Bulldogs’ forwards who carried the team on both ends of the court.
“It wasn’t the kind of win we thought we were going to get or anything like that, so we just had to stay together,” Lewis said. “That’s what I love about this team. We just stay together no matter what, and we just try to figure things out.”
Crucial to that success was junior forward Jayden Thomason, whose dunks electrified the crowd and defensive presence in the paint made shooting difficult for Loachapoka. He credited his work ethic for being prepared to lead the team when his number was called.
“I come to play every day and practice and work hard with my team, that’s about it,” Thomason said. “We just keep playing. We’ve been in this situation before a lot of times. And we work on this. We do scenarios in practice and all that. We’ll keep working every day and trying our best, that’s all we can do.”
From tip-off, the game was a gritty, high-flying, low-scoring affair that saw excellent set defense from both teams. By the time the first quarter ended, LaFayette had executed fast-break opportunities and snagged enough offensive rebounds to take a 10-6 into the second quarter.
Once the players had settled in, shot attempts and passing lanes opened things offensively. That led to a 20-10 second-quarter Loachapoka run that was fueled by a full-court press, near-perfect free throw shooting and a buzzer-beating three-pointer.
By the time the halftime buzzer sounded, the Indians entered the locker room with a 26-20 lead.
Following halftime, both teams made numerous mistakes in the opening three minutes as they looked to take the initiative. Once those jitters were out, a compact defense that offered Loachapoka very little in the paint allowed the Bulldogs to cut the deficit to 30-29 and put themselves in striking distance entering the fourth quarter.
With very little separation between the two teams through the first five minutes, it appeared Adolph Dunn would be the difference maker for the Indians after scoring 12 of his 24 total points in the fourth quarter. However, Thomason made just enough free throws in the final seconds to keep Loachapoka at bay and secure the victory.
Thomason led the Bulldogs with 14 points while Cameron Thomas finished second with 10 points.
Dunn led all scorers with 24 points for the Indians, and Mitchell Chenier added eight points.
