The Parkway Panthers held off a late Airline rally and defeated the Vikings 57-52 in a District 1-5A game Tuesday night at Parkway.
Airline played almost the entire game without 6-foot-6 forward Brayden Thompson, who suffered a lower leg injury just minutes into the first quarter.
Thompson was taken to the hospital for evaluation.
Elsewhere in 1-5A games involving parish teams, Benton fell to Natchitoches Central 86-63 in Natchitoches and Haughton lost to Southwood 78-33 at Southwood.
Captain Shreve defeated Byrd 55-52 at Shreve.
Defending champion Southwood (14-8, 3-0) leads the district by a half-game over Natchitoches Central (16-2, 2-0). The Chiefs have to make up a game against Byrd that was postponed last Friday because of the weather.
Captain Shreve (13-6, 2-1) and Parkway (13-6, 2-1) are tied for third. They are followed by Byrd (11-3, 1-1), Airline (12-8, 1-2), Benton (8-12, 0-3) and Haughton (5-10, 0-3).
Elsewhere, Bossier opened District 1-3A play with an 88-36 rout of North Webster in Springhill.
Plain Dealing fell just short in its District 1-1A opener, losing to Arcadia 56-55 in Plain Dealing.
At Parkway, the Panthers led the Vikings 47-35 with just under four minutes to play. With 1:35 to play, Parkway’s lead was still eight.
But Airline’s Star Hampton hit a 3-pointer to cut the lead to 49-44 with 1:21 left. The Panthers pushed the lead back to 53-46 with 1:02 left.
Airline’s Kendrick Crawford converted a three-point plat to make it a four-point game with 54 seconds left.
The Vikings had a chance to get within two after stealing the inbounds pass but couldn’t get the shot to fall.
Bryce Roberts then hit two free throws with 38.1 seconds left to give Parkway a 55-49 lead, and Airline missed a couple of shots inside. The Panthers hit two free throws before Airline sank a long 3 at the buzzer for the final margin.
Parkway was clutch at the free throw line in the fourth quarter, hitting 8 of 8. Trae Ware sank four. Roberts and Gnoble Peterson hit two each.
The Panthers led 10-7 after the first quarter then started to get some separation in the second. Bryce Roberts knocked down two 3s while Ware and Gabe Larry had one each. Parkway took a 27-19 lead into the locker room.
Jonathan Tauzin hit a 3 late in the third quarter to get Airline within 34-30. But Parkway closed the quarter with a 5-0 run for a 39-30 lead.
Roberts led the Panthers with 19 points. Larry finished with 12 and Ware had eight.
Crawford and Amir Wineglass paced Airline with 15 and 14 points, respectively. Crawford scored eight in the fourth.
Devin Bilbo chipped in with 10 points.
At North Webster, D’Ante Bell and Otis Smith scored 21 and 20 points, respectively, to lead Bossier (22-3, 1-0). Smith hit four from behind the arc.
Lamark Taylor also made four from long range and had 16 points. James Davis had 11 points and Cody Deen eight.
Bossier rolled to a 34-7 first-quarter lead.
Larance Davis paced North Webster (6-8, 0-1) with 14.
At Plain Dealing, Darrien Perry poured in 29 points but it wasn’t quite enough as the Lions fell to 5-10 and 0-1. Ladarious O’Neal added nine and Cedarius Johnson eight.
Arcadia improved to 10-5 and 1-0.
