Ruston survives, advances to state

When you think about 'survive and advance' playoff basketball, No. 8 Ruston's 62-55 quarterfinal win over No. 1 Zachary is what it's all about.

With the Bearcats leading by 16 with 4:30 left in the fourth and a return trip to the state tournament seeming within easy reach, the Broncos got off the mat and started throwing haymakers on a 13-0 run to cut Ruston's lead to 60-55 with 1:00 left. Gut check time. 

But if there's one player who's shown he's not afraid of the big moments it's been junior guard Aidan Anding. With his team scoreless for over four minutes and on the verge of a collapse, Anding poked for the ball as Zachary looked to set up offense down five with under 40 seconds left. Anding got all ball, stealing and sprinting up the floor and slamming home te ball for a dunk to give Ruston breathing room up 62-55 with 33 seconds to go.

Ruston head coach Ryan Bond said there aren't many words left to define Andin's impact on the Bearcats, and said his clutch steal wrote one more chapter in the athletic Bearcats' legacy.

"He's just special," Bond said. "He's a special, he's a special player, he's just special. Electric and infectious personality. He lights up the room and he's our leader. It's fun to coach him and he makes so many plays for us on both ends of the floor. He makes us go."

Anding put up 9 points and 3 steals - with two in the final minute - while Ahmad Hudson kept his double-double streak going with 16 points, 14 rebounds, and 6 blocks. Joran Parker added 16 points and Jamadrion Lillard scored 11 points.

Ruston, who hadn't made the state tournament since 1988 prior to last season, has now made it in back-to-back seasons. Bond said it's a credit to the players for buying into the program's standards.

"What can you say? The guys did it," Bond said. "Zachary's a good team they're number one and they won back-to-back state championships a couple years ago, probably would have been the favorite last year, so what can you say? The guys fought through it and they stayed together and that's what we told them. That was the gameplan, 'Stay together. Good or bad let's just keep doing what we're doing and keep playing.' And we got a little tight there. You get tight and you're up 18 and you relax and they hit a three to cut it to 15 and you get a little bit tighter and they cut it to nine. But we just keep preaching let's play defense. We came up with a couple big stops there at the end and you just can't stay enough about our kids."

"We're very, very happy," Bond added. "This is a huge win but the mission is not over for what we had envsioned."

Ruston will face No. 5 Natchitoches Central, who beat Denham Springs 72-58 Friday, in the Division I non-select state semifinals.