The Benton Tigers slipped past the Plain Dealing Lions 61-58 in a non-district boys basketball game Tuesday night at Benton.
The Bossier Bearkats and Haughton Bucs also won non-district contests. Bossier edged DeRidder 62-58 at DeRidder and Haughton routed Magnolia School of Excellence 77-30 at Magnolia.
In other non-district games, the Parkway Panthers fell to Ruston 70-60 at home and the Airline Vikings lost to West Monroe 61-53 on the road.
At Benton, Dylan Slaid and Ethan Yarbrough led Benton (4-10) with 16 and 14 points, respectively. Brodie Romero added 10. Todd Dominick and Jathen Ross scored nine each.
Darrien Perry paced Plain Dealing (6-4) with 18 points. Ja’kaleb McGee added 12 and Dakeldrick Oliver 11. Jymaury King scored all nine of his points in the first quarter on three 3-pointers.
Plain Dealing led for much of the game and was up by five after three quarters. But the Tigers outscored the Lions 19-11 in the fourth.
Yarbrough scored six in the quarter and Ross had five. The Tigers were six of eight from the free throw line. Romero hit all four his his attempts.
Nine of Plain Dealing’s 11 points in the fourth quarter came at the free throw line. The Lions hit nine of 10.
At Magnolia, Kentrell Parker poured in 31 points to lead the Bucs (4-5) to the victory. Ken Lang added 10.
At DeRidder, Jacoby Decker and Xavien Beasley topped Bossier with 20 and 14 points, respectively. Tim King added 10.
Bossier (10-2), ranked No. 1 in the latest LHSAA Class 4A power rankings, visits No. 4 Woodlawn (14-3) Saturday night at 7:30. The game was originally scheduled for Friday night.
Derrion Griffen led DeRidder (7-11) with 18.
At Parkway, Chase Turner led 11 Panthers (7-3) who scored with 13 points. Joey Wiggins added 10, Bryce Roberts nine, Gabe Larry eight and Isaiah Robinson seven.
Laderrick Brown paced Ruston (6-4), which won its fourth in a row, with 22. Tre Griffin added 17.
The Panthers (7-3) fell behind early, trailing 17-11 after a quarter. Ruston led 32-22 at the half and 47-38 after three quarters.
Several times it looked like Parkway might make a run. But Ruston answered each time.
The Panthers got as close as seven midway through the fourth quarter. The Bearcats made 14 of 20 free throws in the final quarter.
Poor free throw shooting throughout the game hurt the Panthers, who hit just 14 of 36.
Ruston’s post players made it tough for Parkway to score inside, swatting away shots time and time again.
At West Monroe, Airline (8-7) also fell behind early, trailing 19-9 after a quarter. West Monroe led by 18 after three quarters. The Vikings tried to mount a rally in the fourth but could only get as close as eight.
West Monroe, which snapped a four-game losing streak, improved to 6-6.
