Gators end playoff season

Oak Grove – The third time was not the charm for the Delhi Charter Gators as they fell to the Tensas Panthers in the quarterfinals of the LHSAA Boys Basketball playoffs 52-48. This is the third time these District 2-1A foes have met and all three games went to the Panthers by a combined 11 points. With the loss, DCS’ season ends at 21-8 making its deepest playoff run in school history. Tensas improves to 24-10 with the victory and moves on to Lake Charles to the LHSAA State semifinals to take on the #2 seed, Lincoln Prep at Burton Coliseum on the campus of McNeese State University.
“The kids deserve all the credit for a great season,” DCS Head Coach and Athletic Director Chad Clark said after the game. “They played the music and I was just the conductor. We set a lot of school records and we’ve been building for this the last couple years. Hopefully this gives us something positive to continue that process for the next few years.”
In the previous two games this season, the Gators got out to a lead early only to have it evaporate in the second half. This game was decidedly different as the teams traded the lead in the first quarter until a tie at 15 with 1:42 left in the period. From that point on, the Panthers never relinquished the lead even though it never got more than 10 points.
The second quarter was not pretty offensively for both teams as they combined for only 10 points. DCS was ice cold from all over the floor but especially from the 3-point arc as they were 0-7 in the period. The Gators even had several short-range jumpers and tip-ins that seemed to bounce around but found its way off the rim. Tensas owned the boards in that period and most of the night as well as the three-point line. The Panthers grabbed 36 rebounds to DCS’ 26 and were 5-13 from the arc while the Gators only shot 2-15. Tensas was led by Albert South’s 12 rebounds while senior Deshumbra Jones led Delhi Charter with nine boards. Tensas pushed the lead to only five, 24-19, at the half.
Delhi Charter was fortunate to only be down by five at the half given the offensive issues. The only thing that kept it that close was a stingy half-court Gator defense and the Panther’s being content to sit on the ball in the half court and run clock. With DCS having the shorter bench, that didn’t seem to be a good strategy and almost came back to bite Tensas late in the second half as the Gators turned up the defensive pressure even more with full court press late in the third quarter.
Tensas’ Lamonte Bass opened the half with another three, to push the lead to eight and that’s where it stayed for most of the second half. Bass led all scorers with 15, followed by Robert Clark’s 14 and South added 10 for the Panthers.
DCS did change its offensive strategy in the third quarter driving the lane to get to the rim and maybe the foul line, but the chilly night shooting continued as they finally scored with 3:47 remaining in the quarter. Junior Desmond Longino, who finished as the Gators leading scorer with 14, broke the six minute drought, going back prior to the half, with two free-throws. He was 5-6 from the FT line in the quarter and as a team, DCS was 6-8 in the third period. However, Tensas continued to have the answer on the offensive end.
Dallas James, who only had six points on the night all in the second half, came off the bench and scored four points in the quarter driving from half-court to the rim both times to break the press. His input thwarted DCS’ effort in the third and the lead was back to eight, 37-29 at the buzzer.
James’ last two points of the night provided what seemed to be the exclamation mark with 4:10 remaining on an alley-oop slam with an assist to junior Tyler Spencer that pushed the lead to ten, 44-34. The Gators wouldn’t go away however and turned up the defensive pressure to cut the lead again down to five, 46-41, when Longino’s slam seemed to answer the Panthers and change momentum. Tensas Head Coach Charlie Williams called timeout at that point with 2:33 remaining.
After the timeout, the teams traded buckets until the Gators turned the ball over on two straight possessions and were left with very little option but to foul to prolong the game. That strategy led to DCS’ lone senior, Jones, fouling out to end his career with six points on the night. Tensas got enough free throws to keep the lead and Robert Clark’s front-end make of the 1-1 sealed the win and the final margin of 52-48 with only three seconds remaining.
For the Gators, junior Jalen Lockett added 10 points and nine rebounds, followed by junior Chris Murphy’s nine points and six rebounds, and J’quan Polly’s kicked in seven points. DCS will have all off-season to reflect on a great year and contemplate what might have been on the greatest basketball season in school history. Clark returns most of this year’s team for next season, but a move up to Class 2A will not make things easy to keep the momentum flowing for the next two years.