John Burson
The Eunice High Bobcats took an early lead and never surrendered it as they claimed a 69-48 victory over the Rayne High Wolves in non-district basketball action Tuesday evening at the Bobcat gym.
Eunice outscored the Wolves by a 17-6 margin in the first quarter and enjoyed a 35-17 lead at halftime.
Mykal Moore and Brandon Ndubueze combined to spark the early lead for the Bobcats with Moore scoring eight and Ndubueze scoring 10 in the first half.
Rayne tried to get back in the game at the start of the third quarter as Dentry Leopold scored the first bucket of the third quarter to cut the Eunice lead to 35-19.
But the Bobcats quickly responded thanks to Dylan Miller’s three-point field goal, putting the Bobcats up by a 38-19 margin.
By the end of the third quarter the Bobcats had extended their lead to 47-30.
The Bobcats kept up the scoring pace at the start of the fourth quarter, with Moore hitting two free throws to make it 49-30.
The Wolves scored the next seven points to cut the lead to 49-37, but the Cats would go on an 11-2 run to put the game away.
Malik Poullard led the way in the final five minutes of action with nine points for the Cats.
Notorius McClelland led the scoring for Rayne with 16 points.
Leopold and Tony Roberts also hit the double-digit mark with 14 and 10 points, respectively, for the Wolves.
Poullard finished as the top scorer for the Bobcats with 20 points. Poullard made three 3-point goals during the game. Ndubueze, who was a dominant force inside on both sides of the court against the Wolves, finishing with 19 points. Moore had 12 points and Carlin Vigers had nine points for the Bobcats.
Goerrein Dupre scored only two points, but the senior guard assisted his teammates on several occasions with solid passes.
The Bobcats, who improved to 5-10 overall, will travel to South Beauregard on Friday to take part in the South Beauregard Tournament.