Iota claims Basile tourney title

After holding off East Beauregard in the opening game of the Basile Tournament Thursday, Iota coach Stacy Bertrand had a simple plan for how his team could claim the title two nights later.
That plan was to jump out to a quick lead on Friday against an overmatched Basile squad in the semifinal round and then rest his starters for what promised to be a very competitive title game against either Opelousas Catholic or Church Point on the final day.
The Bulldogs (10-4) did exactly that and it paid dividends Saturday when they squared off with Opelousas Catholic in the finals.
A well-rested Bulldogs squad held off a fierce rally down the stretch and outscored the Vikings 9-5 in the final two minutes to claim the championship with a 66-55 victory.
“I knew Opelousas Catholic was very good and I knew they would have a tough game with Church Point on Friday,” said Bertrand. “I wanted to get our starters out of the (semifinal) game early and rest them.
“They (Opelousas) didn’t have fresh legs tonight and we did and that was to our advantage.”
Also to their advantage was the Bulldogs’ shooting as they took control of the game early and led by as many as 16 on three separate occasions midway through the third quarter.
But just like in their opener against East Beauregard, there was a lapse, this time in the fourth quarter, and the Vikings took advantage.
The Bulldogs struggled with the Vikings’ pressure defense and turned the ball over six times which enabled Opelousas to climb back into the game and trim the deficit to six (57-51) with just under two minutes to go.
“We knew they were going to make a run and they did, but we aided in that,” said Bertrand. “We panicked a little bit there. We knew they were coming after us and we didn’t do a good job of protecting the ball.”
Fortunately, the Bulldogs were able to quickly regain their composure as the spread the court and ended up with four easy layups to close out the game.
“This was a big one for us,” said Bertrand. “We were pretty evenly matched and we knew it would be a battle. But we were able to jump out to an early lead and we never gave it up.
“When we can get that early lead, we can control the game and that’s what we did tonight.”
Once again, Colby Wilson and Jeron Latiolais led the Bulldogs with 27 and 17 points, respectively.
Wilson knocked down four long-range 3-pointers on the night and had countless driving layups while Latiolais did most of his work courtesy of mid-range jumpers.
Brett Clay also had a big night with 11 points and a number of offensive rebounds. Carter Young followed with six points, both in the first quarter on 3-pointers, Kyle Thibodeaux scored three points and Conner Story, who missed the opener due to illness, finished with two points.
The Bulldogs return to action Thursday when they take on J.S. Clark at 3 p.m. in their opening game of the Midland Holiday Spectacular