The Airline Vikings and Bossier Bearkats stayed atop the standings in their respective districts with victories Friday night.
Airline defeated Captain Shreve 72-60 in a District 1-5A game at Captain Shreve. The Vikings (19-10, 8-0) got some help from Evangel, which knocked off Southwood 55-48.
Defending champion Airline now leads Evangel (12-13, 6-3) and Southwood (13-13, 5-3) by three games in the loss column with just four to play.
In the other District 1-5A game, the Parkway Panthers downed the Haughton Bucs 56-40 at Haughton.
Bossier topped parish rival Benton 69-50 in a District 1-4A game at Bossier.
The Bearkats (22-6, 9-1) remained tied for first with Woodlawn (23-5, 9-1), which routed North DeSoto 97-24.
In a District 1-1A game, Plain Dealing fell to Haynesville 58-51 at Plain
Dealing.
At Captain Shreve, Airline trailed 53-50 after three quarters then dominated the fourth, outscoring the Gators 22-7.
Fred Lemons sparked the Vikings’ rally with three 3-pointers. He finished with 15 points, all on 3s. Airline made nine from beyond the arc in the game.
Trent Ivy led a balanced Airline offense with 17 points, including two
3-pointers in the third quarter.
TJ Robinson sank nine of 10 free throws and finished with 14 points. Brayden Thompson scored 11.
KJ Jones paced Shreve (10-17, 3-6) with 24 points, including six 3s.
At Haughton, Ty Hubbard scored 11 points and Bryce Roberts and Javaris White added 10 each to lead Parkway (11-11, 4-5).
The Panthers led 24-18 at the half and 44-31 going into the fourth.
Roberts and Sheldon Dudley (eight points) both sank a pair of 3-pointers.
Kilian Malena topped Haughton with 10 points.
At Bossier, Dante Bell and Kaalas Roots scored 19 and 17 points, respectively, to lead Bossier.
The Bearkats nailed seven of their nine 3-pointers in the first half en route to a 40-23 lead.
Bossier led by as many as 11 points in the first quarter but Benton rallied within five late. The Tigers had a chance to get within three but were called for a charge on a made basket.
Jacoby Decker hit a 3 at the buzzer to bump the Bearkats lead to 22-14.
Bossier blew it open in the second quarter with a string of 3-pointers.
Roots, Janyron Rogers and Tim King all hit from deep.
The Tigers had trouble dealing with the 6-foot-8 Bell, who was a force on both ends of the floor.
Jalen Harding led Benton (14-13, 5-5) with 14 points, including three 3s. Cameron Robinson added 11 and Bubba Osby 10.
At Plain Dealing, Derrien Perry scored 19 points and Dakeldric Oliver 15 to lead the Lions (12-14, 6-4).
Haynesville improved to 13-3 overall and 8-2 in 1-1A,
— Russell Hedges, rhedges@bossierpress.com
