Senior Kendrick Bernard‘s sharpshooting helped spark Carencro early, and his and fellow senior Wilson Landry‘s timely stops and transition scores helped hold off Bonnabel late.
The No. 15 Bears (21-10), who have weathered adversity and adjusted on the fly this season, won all four quarters Friday — with the veteran duo among the leaders in critical moments — to open the Division-I Select playoffs with a big 69-51 home win against the No. 18 Bruins (25-9).
“Just absolutely huge, and the irony of it is they’re related: they’re actually uncle (Landry) and nephew (Bernard), believe it or not,” Carencro coach Christopher Kovatch said. “Wilson Landry, No. 12, is the undisputed leader of the team. We believe that great teams have to have truth-tellers. And Wilson is never scared to tell the truth, and he holds everybody accountable. And KB doesn’t have that vocal leadership, but he leads by example. Ever since that day in December, he’s just been stellar with everything that he’s done.
“And, so, where we get it from those two guys, they’re each doing their job and everybody’s got their role. The classic coach-speak, some Curt Cignetti here, so if everybody does their role, we’re pretty good.”
The Bears advance to face No. 2 Alexandria (29-3) in the second round for the second straight year.
And Bernard, Landry and company left little doubt from a 10-3 run to close the first quarter with a 15-7 lead, stretching that margin to 31-19 by halftime and then scoring the first nine points of the third quarter.
Carencro was able to push the pace with good defense, active hands in passing lanes and on the boards helping set up transition opportunities.
At least five players recorded steals, including guards Derrick Lotts and Joseph Jones being particularly disruptive.
“It helps a lot because we can finish in transition, and all of us can see the whole court, so we can find the open man also,” Bernard said.
Added Kovatch: “We talked about our need and our want to want to get out in transition against them. We didn’t want to be in a defensive, half-court game with them, just because (senior guard Thomas) Molette is so dangerous. But I think we had ’em scouted really well. And sometimes that’s great, and sometimes it’s not great. It’s only great if your kids went out and executed it, and I think that their execution of everything that we planned and practiced just made that difference.”
Bonnabel scratched its way back to within 47-36 with a flurry of steals and baskets early in the fourth.
But Landry, who had had a slower start offensively, drew a charge, then scored on the other end, and Bernard followed with a pair of driving buckets to help Carencro regain momentum and begin sealing away the victory.
Bernard finished with a game-high 21 points, including three big first-half 3-pointers, and seven rebounds, and Landry had five points and seven rebounds.
The Bears also received huge contributions off the bench from junior guard Dentrell Morrison and sophomore forward Hayden Monroe.
“Coming in, I’ve been fighting a back injury, so I just needed to be there for my team and come off the bench tonight,” Monroe said. “But what I liked that I did tonight was that I brought energy, boards and being there for my team.”
Monroe scored 11 points and grabbed eight rebounds, and Morrison had 17 points, including 10 in the fourth-quarter alone to help close the door on the Bruins.
Landry had five points and seven rebounds, and big man Jaden Batiste had eight points, six boards and a couple steals.
“Monroe had been starting most games, and he’d been battling — he pulled a muscle in his back on Monday — and so we moved the lineup around a little bit,” Kovatch said. “But you noticed we don’t do starting lineups before the game because we have eight starters. And we had nine, but (Chantz Babineaux) has a boot on somewhere walking around. So we fully believe in those guys and what they can do. And it’s part of who we are as a group.
“Dentrell Morrison is probably the best sixth man at least in this area.. He’s so shifty. And you look at him, and he’s a diminutive guy, but he has a knack, he works hard, he gets to the rim, he studies the game. It’s kind of who we are. Hopefully if one guy’s not bringing it, then the next guy is.
Molette led Bonnabel with 21 points and five rebounds, scoring at every level with a particularly dangerous pull-up.
Sophomore guard Kenyon Harper Jr. added 12 points, at least three steals and a couple rebounds and assists, and sophomore forward Taurean Kenner led the team with six rebounds, three points, a blocked shot and a steal.
Carencro will visit Alexandria on a Tuesday in a rematch against a Trojans team and Louisiana (Lafayette) signee Tyshawn Duncan that ended the Bears’ season last spring in the same round, 46-38.
“We need to go recruit a 6-foot-9 kid to keep up with Tyshawn Duncan, and we need to make (Monroe) and (Batiste) two years older to battle with Jarvell Bordelon from Alexandria because they’re just so talented,” Kovatch joked. “We faced that same team a year ago. I thought we had a great game plan coming in, and I thought we couldn’t do much better than what we did over there last year… and they were just better than we were.
“And probably you look at them on paper and they’re still better than we are by far, so it’s gonna take a great game plan. The kids are gonna come in tomorrow morning. They’re making the game plan with me on how we’re gonna attack ’em.”