A talented young team led by five sophomore starters, the future seems bright for Hahnville.
But, as far as the Tiger players seem to feel: Why wait?
Hahnville swept three games to begin the season at the annual Hahnville Invitational, including an overtime victory and a buzzer beater. While losses to Sophie B. Wright and Jesuit have followed, the 3-2 Tigers have already shown an ability to come through in crunch time – a potentially exciting development for a team that will gain valuable experience each time on the court.
“We’ve played some tough games to start the season … Prairieville, John Ehret and L.B. Landry at our tournament, three different styles of basketball and a really good look for us at how to approach each,” said Hahnville head boys basketball coach Erica Randolph. “This season’s about progression, it’s about building, we have the majority of these players for the next three years. It’ll be exciting to see their overall growth and the progression of our program.”
Kaden Downing, Lionel Irons, Dilon Friloux, Tyler Martin and Torrey Smith comprise the starting lineup.
Downing and Irons are leading the way statistically. Downing got off to a monster start through four games, averaging 26 points to go with 11 rebounds. Irons isn’t far behind with averages of 21 points and eight rebounds.
Downing made an impact last year in the Tiger rotation as a freshman and Randolph said he’s building off a tremendous summer.
“He understands what he has to do and what his role is for us to win,” said Randolph. “You know you can win when you have a skilled player like him. He’s going to make some plays on the court that are going to make you say, ‘Wow,’ but he also does a really good job of sharing the ball and feeding it to his teammates.”
Irons, Randolph said, brings intensity each time he takes the court.
“He rebounds, he plays with so much intensity and he speeds up the game. He had such a phenominal football season this year and I think that’s given him so much confidence on the basketball court. And he’s one of our best defenders.”
Torrey Smith is a marksman from the outside, one of the team’s best shooters. Martin brings quality size and strength as the team’s center. Friloux is a strong defensive player with a relentless motor.
“It’s a process – they still have some growing and maturing to do as they’re sophomores,” Randolph said. “One thing about this group though, everybody truly understands what their role is on this team and that makes us a much better team unit. And we have guys with a winner’s mentality. After we lost our first game, it was immediately, ‘OK, what do we have to do to get better?’”
Randolph said it’s not a mentality that usually comes with sophomores.
“Their attitude is ‘We don’t want to hear we’re sophomores,’” she said. “I’ve been doing this long enough to know there’s going to be bumps and bruises along the way. They don’t want to hear anything about it. They want to win every night.”
At the HHS Invitational, that’s indeed what they did, starting with a 63-58 win over Prairieville. Against John Ehret, the Tigers overcame a six-point deficit in the final minute to force overtime, where HHS captured a 72-65 victory.
And Downing’s 3-pointer with a second remaining earned Hahnville a win in a thriller against L.B. Landry, 68-67.
Hahnville dropped its first game of the year at the McDonogh No. 35 tournament, falling 61-39 to Sophie B. Wright. On Tuesday night, the Tigers fell in a tough test on the road against Jesuit, which took a 56-46 win.
