The No. 16 seed Airline Vikings fell to No. 17 Covington 60-44 in the first round of the non-select Division I playoffs Thursday night in Covington.
The No. 23 seed Parkway Panthers and No. 26 Benton Tigers play first-round games on the road Friday.
Parkway (13-15) visits No. 10 Slidell (24-7) at 6:30 and Benton (14-13) visits No. 7 Sulphur (27-4) at 6:30.
Bossier (20-9), the No. 4 seed, received a first-round bye in non-select Division II.
The Bearkats will host the winner between No. 13 Assumption (23-9) and No. 20 St. Martinville (14-16) in the second round next week.
At Covington, Airline led 9-8 after both teams struggled offensively in the first quarter.
Jusdan Gladney hit two 3-pointers in the second quarter and the Vikings led 21-18 at the half.
Covington rallied in the third quarter, outscoring Airline 18-9, and led 36-30 going after three.
With Zamyr Houston scoring all 11 of his points, the Lions dominated the fourth quarter.
Airline senior Kevin White finished his outstanding career with 15 points. Gladney added 10.
Brennon Bell and Lesean Jones led Covington with 15 and 14 points, respectively.
Covington (21-8) ended Airline’s season for the second year in a row. The Vikings finished 14-16 in Marvin Davis’ first year as head coach.
Parkway is looking to advance to the second round for the second straight year. Last year, the Panthers defeated No. 18 Fontainebleau 73-52 in the first round and lost to No. 2 and eventual runner-up Central 68-62 in Baton Rouge in the second.
Slidell finished runner-up to Northshore in District 7-5A at 6-2. Both of the Tigers’ district losses were against Northshore. Slidell has won 10 of its last 12.
Parkway struggled down the stretch against some tough competition, but the Panthers closed the regular season with a 69-45 victory over Arcadia.
Benton had a strong stretch run, winning four of its last five games. That helped the Tigers make the playoffs for the first time since 2021.
Sulphur won the District 3-5A championship. The Tors take a 15-game winning streak into the playoffs. They haven’t lost since falling to Vandebilt Catholic 45-39 on Dec. 28.
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