Marksville held French Settlement scoreless for the first four minutes Thursday and without a field goal for more than five minutes.
And the top-seeded Tigers (26-5) didn’t let up their swarming, stifling defensive intensity and basket-attacking on the other end until the final minutes of a 62-37 quarterfinal rout of No. 8 French Settlement (25-12) and on to a third straight state tournament appearance.
“We try to wear our hats on the defensive side of the basketball,” smiled coach Antonio “O’kie” Benjamin, still soaked from water bottles his players sprayed on him as he cut down the last piece of net. “We try to let our defense carry us throughout games, and that’s one thing you can be consistent at is our defense.”
Marksville applied pressure from start to finish with its length, athleticism and hustle whether with some early full-court looks, traps or staying in front of ball-handler, jumping passing lanes or closing out on shooters in the halfcourt.
The Tigers forced at least 20 turnovers, handily won the rebounding battle and held French Settlement to a season-low 37 points, including shy of 10 points each of the first three quarters.
“They’re the No. 1 seed for a reason,” French Settlement coach Jake Bourgeois said. “They’ve been in the state championship the past two years for a reason. They play great defense. They have some great individual players, but they play great team basketball and have each other’s back and fly around. They’re just super tough. They make everything, every possession hard, so points are hard to come by.”
Marksville pounced to a quick 9-0 lead with that defense, an electric home crowd and seven early points by junior guard Jaden Price.
French Settlement responded with a couple shots late in the opening period and continued to battle throughout, but the Tigers sustained their defensive effort, started finding more balance on offense and extended their lead every quarter.
“Just our preparation,” senior guard Armonii Benjamin said. “And going to the game, just keeping constant pressure on ’em, making ’em uncomfortable, making ball-handlers uncomfortable and just making it a hard time for them to score.”
Six different Tigers scored, led by Armonii Benjamin‘s game-high 19 points, six rebounds, four steals, two assists and a blocked shot.
The veteran guard was fairly patient early, but then took over stretches with his ability to slice into the lane and attack the rim.
“It’s just something me and coach talked about, just knowing when to take over, when to lead and when to be available for the team,” he said.
Price finished the first quarter with nine point on his way to 14 on the night and grabbed six rebounds and a steal.
Junior guard Dayne Small had 14 points, five rebounds, five assists and two steals, and junior forward Devin “Bam” Lavalais added seven points, a game-high eight rebounds, a blocked shot, a steal and an assist.
“It feels good to really play team ball,” Price said. “Everybody getting touches, and everybody can really score.”
Junior forward Reid Murphy and junior wing Jackson Chewning led French Settlement with 11 and 10 points, respectively, along with three assists by Murphy and four rebounds by Chewning.
Senior forward Drake Parrish finished with eight points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals, and senior point guard Beau Matherne added five points and a team-high seven rebounds.
“I think if anybody said we’d be in the quarterfinals and have a shot to go to state, we take that every year,” Bourgeois said. “So I’m super proud of our kids. Last year we were knocked out in the first round, and it left a sour taste in our mouth, and I thought we did a good job this year responding and living up to the standards of what it means to be a French Settlement Lion.”
Marksville, the 2024 champion and 2025 runner-up, heads to Lake Charles for the third straight year and will face either No. 4 Doyle (27-5) or No. 5 Mamou (24-5) in the semifinals.
“I mean, this is like the perfect team: we’re not too young, we’re not too,” Armonii Benjamin said. “We’ve got just the right age, and all of our guys have been doing this for three or four years, so that’s what makes it so scary honestly … (We) expect just to win and have fun and just have a Marksville type of environment.”