The Bossier Bearkats take on the Ruston Bearcats in the quarterfinals of the 79th annual Bossier Invitational on Thursday at 6:30 at Bossier High.
In Wednesday’s first-round games, Bossier (13-3) defeated Green Oaks 70-42 and Ruston (7-6) downed 2018 runner-up Richwood 76-51.
Benton, the only other Bossier Parish team in the tournament, fell to Loyola 68-51 in the first round.
In other openers, “Doc” Edwards champ Red River routed Booker T. Washington 84-53, and Union Parish slipped past North Caddo 61-57.
In other quarterfinal games Thursday, Union Parish (3-11) takes on Natchitoches Central (10-5) at 3:30, Loyola (11-3) plays DeRidder (8-12) at 5 and Red River (19-2) meets Mansfield (4-9) at 8.
Natchitoches Central, DeRidder and Mansfield all received first-round byes.
In consolation games, Richwood (6-14) plays BTW (5-9) at 12:30 and Benton (5-14) faces North Caddo (2-10) at 2.
Xavien Beasley led Bossier against Green Oaks with 18 points.
The Bearkats hit 12 3-pointers, including five by Otis Smith (15 points) and three by Kaalas Roots (13).
Bossier rolled to a 31-14 lead after a quarter and extended it to 49-25 by halftime.
Green Oaks fell to 9-8.
Laderrick Brown paced Ruston against Richwood with 22 points, including three 3s. Jordan Williams added 14.
Benton got 20 points from Dylan Slaid against Loyola. Deren Melancon paced the Flyers with 26.
Emareyon McDonald and Gakeneon McDonald led five Red River players in double figures against BTW with 16 and 15 points, respectively.
Dylan Harris, Jalen Jones and Earl Knox led Union Parish against North Caddo with 16, 14 and 13, respectively.
Elsewhere Wednesday, two Bossier Parish boys teams got off to a tough start in District 1-5A play.
Haughton fell to Byrd 56-29 at Byrd, and Parkway lost to Southwood 78-59 at Parkway.
Haughton dropped to 6-10 overall. Byrd improved to 7-8.
Parkway fell to 9-6. Southwood raised its record to 14-8.
In the other 1-5A opener, Captain Shreve defeated Evangel 60-18.
