Scotlandville’s Levie Wright scored his team’s first nine points on three 3-pointers, setting the tone for the Hornets as they eliminated Destrehan from the Class 5A state playoffs 77-63 on Tuesday night.
The Wildcats trailed by double digits for much of the game, but never really seemed out of it until the fourth quarter. After Wright gave his team a 6-0 lead, Destrehan’s B.J. Singleton established himself on the inside to cut the Hornet advantage to 6-2. Wright answered with yet another 3-pointer and the Hornets took an 11-2 lead before Destrehan began to settle down.
Back-to-back scores by Gary Johnson and Singleton pulled Destrehan to within five points at 11-6, and a few minutes later Johnson scored once again to cut the Scotlandville lead to 15-12.
But that was as close as the Wildcats would get as the Hornets went on a 7-2 run to end the first quarter with a 22-14 lead.
To start the second quarter, Destrehan got back into the game with a three-point play by Kevin Smith. Scotlandville answered with back-to-back buckets, but Smith went on a mini run of his own by scoring four straight points to bring his team back within three points at 24-21.
Scotlandville’s Cleveland Thomas stretched the lead back to five points by nailing a jumper, but with 6:07 left in the quarter Singleton laid the ball in to make the score 26-23.
Destrehan would never get that close again.
Thomas and Wright hit back-to-back jumpers to make the score 30-23, and Washington nailed a three to give Scotlandville a double-digit lead at 35-23.
From that point on Scotlandville pulled away and went into the break with a 41-27 advantage.
Johnson kept the Wildcats hanging around in the third with some solid plays from the post as he scored seven points in the quarter. But Scotlandville still led 58-44 heading into the fourth.
With his team’s back against the wall, Singleton played his best quarter of the game in the final period, scoring 12 points. However, it wasn’t enough to hold off the quick attack of the Hornets, who seemed to have an answer for everything the Wildcats tried to do.
Wright finished with 27 points to lead the Hornets to the victory, while fellow guard Thomas chipped in with 20 points.
Singleton scored 22 points to pace the Wildcats, while Smith added 17 points.
Johnson finished with 14.
Scotlandville will battle No. 7 Westgate on Friday in the quarterfinals. The Hornets are looking for a return trip to the state finals. Last year, they suffered a 55-54 defeat to Brother Martin.
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