After winning their first three district games of the season, the Hahnville Tigers find themselves in the midst of a four-game slide.
On Friday, Hahnville(10-12, 3-4) suffered a 54-39 defeat to Central Lafourche. The Tigers jumped out to a 13-9 lead in the first quarter, but Central Lafourche went on a 20-6 run in the second. The Tigers were never able to recover.
The game came to an end with 13 seconds left due to a physical confrontation between the teams.
“Honestly, I wasn’t proud, especially with the melee that happened,” Hahnville head coach Marcell Fisher said. “It’s not what we teach here. We want our guys to play hard, but we never want them to intentionally try to hurt someone.”Fisher suspended star Fountainette Bradley for one game after the melee. He said Bradley is remorseful about the situation and will reach out to Central Lafourche’s head coach.
Mason Aucoin led the Tigers with 11 points in the loss.Fisher said that his Tigers are having trouble competing against physical teams this season.
“We are a transition team, and when that is taken away from us it’s hard for us to score because we don’t have a post presence,” Fisher said. “We’re young. We have three juniors who were on JV last year and one was on varsity but didn’t play. We are going through growing pains.”
Fisher said his team will have to learn how to be physical down the stretch if they hope to reach the playoffs.
“I think you have to grow through it because it’s a mindset,” Fisher said. “If you’re not used to competing at that level and physicality, it can knock you down a bit.”
With Bradley suspended, the Tigers suffered a 47-36 loss to South Lafourche on Tuesday. However, Fisher is hopeful that his squad can win their next two games before their huge district clash against league-leading East St. John on Feb. 10.
“If we can get wins in those games, I feel pretty good about where we stand,” Fisher said. “I still think we are good enough to make the playoffs. It’s just that when someone punches us in the mouth, we don’t know how to fight back.”In order to win the games leading up to ESJ, Fisher said his team must play better on defense.
“We have to have a level of toughness and get better at blocking out and rebounding. I want to see our guys dive for loose balls,” Fisher said. “We want to score, score, sore, but we have to be able to defend people and make stops. We need to develop a defensive mindset.”
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