Drake Parrish jumped a pass near midcourt late in the third quarter, snatching a steal and weaving his way through defenders and right to the rim.
The senior’s second basket off the bench Monday sparked a double-digit finish in potentially his final home game and a 13-1 French Settlement run that helped blow open a back-and-forth battle vs. Avoyelles into a 63-46 victory on to the Division-III Non-Select quarterfinals.
“Before the game, we went over a press, and coach Jake (Bourgeois) put me in and said, ‘I need you to fly around. I need you to bring energy,'” Parrish said. “I was kind of playing scared in the first half. And he told me I needed to pick it up and stop playing timid. So I finally did, got the steal. The crowd was kind of down, so I threw my hands in the air and started trying to get them hype.
“Luckily my team trusted me and was able to find me, and we just kept believing in each other and bringing a lot of energy.”
Parrish scored again on a drive moments later on his way to 18 points — 15 of which came in the final 10 minutes — and five rebounds.
And senior point guard Beau Matherne hit a baseline shot to give the No. 8 Lions a 40-33 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
Junior wing Jackson Chewning drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key in the opening seconds of the quarter, and he and Parrish each scored again to balloon the margin to 47-33.
“I called a timeout and chewed ’em out because we were playing terrible offensive basketball to start the third quarter — we had a bunch of turnovers and very little shot attempts — and they responded,” Bourgeois said. “Drake came out and gave us a ton of energy. We did a much better job. We were able to get in transition and get some easy ones. And when we did, it got the crowd going and got everybody into it. The gym kind of exploded, and whenever the gym exploded, we went on our run.”
The No. 9 Mustangs continued to battle, highlighted by 3-pointers by junior guard Orlando Jacobs and sophomore wing Kingston Rouse, but could never pull back within single digits.
“I’m proud of ’em overall,” Avoyelles coach Chris Dupuy said. “The loss stings right now, but I thought we had a good season. It’s not where we wanted it to end, but all good things have to come to an end.”
Chewning led all players with 21 points, eight rebounds, a couple blocked shots and a steal.
Matherne finished with five points, a game-high four assists, two steals and two rebounds.
Junior forward Reid Murphy added seven points, and senior forward Gabe Ellis and senior forward Trevor McMorris chipped in six each.
“I feel like we’re playing our best basketball right now,” Chewning said. “Nobody’s unbeatable, so I feel like we have a pretty good chance going into (the quarters).”
Rouse and Jacobs led the Mustangs with 19 and 15 points, respectively, and senior wing Chris Barnes had seven.
Junior forward Kobe Smith, a Louisiana (Lafayette) football target, grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds, kept several plays alive with his physicality and hustle and dished out a couple assists.
“That’s what he does for us every game,” Dupuy said. “He averages six points a game and 16 rebounds a game. He just works so hard. And him being really our only big person, it just takes a lot out of him. And when they can throw No. 12 at him and No. 14 at him, it wears on him, but I thought he did his normal job on the glass.”
French Settlement advances to its third quarterfinal in the past four years and will face Tuesday’s winner between No. 1 Marksville and No. 16 St. James.
But, first, Bourgeois will head to Hammond to coach his top-seeded Lady Lions in their first state tournament appearance since 2020 against No. 5 Ville Platte.
“I told my wife last week, ‘Look, I’m gonna be quite busy for the next couple of weeks,'” he smiled. “I’ll take being busy and take having to have all this work load as long as we keep winning. And I’ll take a little bit of sleep and enjoy all these wins and try to enjoy the moment with these kids, my seniors that I’ve got. And hopefully we can get another win in Hammond and then play Thursday-Friday again.”
