Bearcats come up short in semifinals 60-56

Not enough stops. Not enough hops.
While Ruston was struggling shooting the basketball in the second half, Natchitoches-Central was raining bombs from long range to pull away from the Bearcats 60-56 in the Division I Non-select semifinals at Burton Coliseum in Lake Charles.
For the second year in a row, Ruston’s season ended without advancing to the championship game.
“Obviously it’s a tough loss for our kids. We felt good for the last several games in the regular season and into the playoffs about how we were playing. I thought we were prepared and I had the utmost confidence in them,” Ruston head coach Ryan Bond said. “Hats off to Natchitoches-Central. They kept fighting and clawing and they shot the ball extremely well. We hadn’t seen that in a lot of ballgames. Especially Smith. Give credit to them.”
Bond was alluding to Logan Smith, the Chiefs’ silky smooth guard who found his shooting stroke early and often for a game-high 28 points.
Ruston had trouble with its shooting touch all night, managing just 37% from the floor — including just 6-of-23 from three-point land. In contrast, the Chiefs (29-7) shot 8-of-13 from three. That’s where they made a huge difference in the ballgame.
Most of that damage came at the hands of Smith. He hit four treys in the first half and shot 5-of-9 from behind the arc for the game.
With all that going against them, Ruston (20-10) still had its chances down the stretch. The Bearcats kept fighting after giving up a halftime lead and with 3:35 left in the contest cut the lead to 54-53 on what may have been the highlight of the entire Marsh Madness tournament.
Aidan Anding picked up a steal and fed the ball to freshman Ahmad Hudson on a break. Hudson jumped from the free throw line, over a Chief defender and flushed a vicious tomahawk dunk. Just when momentum seemed to shift, Jacorien Beard drained a three for Natchitoches-Central to increase the lead back to four.
Down the stretch, the Chiefs took care of the basketball and made their free throws to hold Ruston off.
“I told the guys it was going to be a 32-minute battle. They play too hard, they’re too well-coached,” Bond said of the Chiefs. “We weren’t surprised. We got off-kilter. We were down three in the fourth and it was like we were down 30. We were shooting too quick instead of trying to grind out a possession and make sure we got a high percentage shot.”
The first quarter was a battle between Smith and Ruston senior Zhy Scott. Both players scored 11 points in the opening stanza. The Chiefs led 19-16, but Scott was the only RHS player who could find his shooting touch.
The second quarter morphed into a game of runs. After NCHS led 22-18, Ruston went on a 12-0 run fueled by Hudson and Anding on defense. That gave the Cats 30-22 lead when Anding drained a three off a feed from Joran Parker.
Hudson, Scott and Lontravious Dimmer also had buckets during the spurt.
The Chiefs answered though. They went on a 6-0 run to draw to within two. Ruston led 32-28 at intermission.
“When we were up 30-22, they made that run toward the end of the half. I called timeout to try and stem that and get refocused. Again, that’s a credit to them to make the plays,” Bond said.
“We started turning the ball over. We had some crazy dribbles. Zhy is dribbling down and slips. Just kinda fumbling, bumbling, stumbling,” he continued. “Those turnovers and not getting shots. It doesn’t matter if you’re playing here, or sixth grade basketball in Ruston or overseas, it’s the same. In the NBA, you have to take care of the basketball. You have to value the ball. I don’t know how many turnovers we had, but we had too many.”
The answer to that is 15. And though Ruston won the turnover battle by 8, the giveaways came in bunches. Like the end of the first half when Ruston had a chance to go up by double digits, but turned the ball over four straight possessions.
“Our No. 1 priority all year was to take care of the basketball. It’s a simplistic approach to the game, but we have to take care of the basketball and rebound,” Bond said. “I thought we did a good job for the most part on the defensive glass. We have to get shots and we have to get the ball inside. Inside for me is penetration or throwing it inside to Ahmad (Hudson) or Zhy (Scott).”
When the Cats followed that formula, they scored with ease. The 6-7 Hudson was effective as a passer in limited minutes with the ball in his hands. Twice he passed out of a double team to find Anding for a three-pointer. He also found Scott on a fast break for a layup.
But Ruston didn’t do enough of those little things to turn the game into their favor.
After holding on to the slim lead at halftime, the Bearcats came out of the locker room cold as ice. Smith hit a three immediately to cut the lead to one and when Scott answered with a bucket, that started a drought of five minutes without a field goal for Ruston. The saving grace was their ability to keep the game close at the free throw line.
Neither team extended by more than three points during the quarter, but it was the Chiefs that out-scored Ruston 18-11 to seize the lead for good.
“It was a good basketball game, but unfortunately, we came up a little bit short just like last year when we came up short against Ponchatoula,” Bond said. “We have four seniors graduating who have been dressing out with us since their freshman year. We are so appreciative of them. We have those two guys (Hudson and Anding) back and JP (Parker) back and some freshmen coming up. We’ll be back. I have confidence in these kids.”
Scott led the Cats with 17 points on the night, while Anding chipped in with 16 points, 6 steals and 4 assists. Hudson finished with 12 points, 14 rebounds and 5 blocked shots to end his freshman season.