Pioneers fall short in tourney finals

PINE PRAIRIE – The Notre Dame Pioneers had their first tournament title in recent memory in their sights Saturday evening.
The Pios (5-5) fought through injury and foul trouble for most of the night, but still weren’t able to overcome Avoyelles Charter’s pressure defense in a 50-38 loss in the Pine Prairie Tournament finals.
“We were right there,” said Notre Dame coach Donald Adams. “It was a one-point game going into the fourth quarter and then they just really got after us. We had a lot of good looks, but we just couldn’t get much to fall.”
The Pios got a big third quarter from Ethan Smith, who scored nine of his team-high 15 points in the frame to help cut a five-point deficit to one (33-32).
Avoyelles, however, limited the Pios to just six points in the fourth quarter while also having their best offensive production of the night with 17 points.
Smith and Tre Milstead, the Pios top two leading scorers thus far, both fouled out early in the fourth quarter, which also hampered Notre Dame’s offensive output.
Milstead scored just two points in the game after being sidelined for most of the contest due to an ankle injury suffered in the first quarter.
Claiton Johnson added eight points in the loss while Hunter Meche had seven. Brice Brandon followed with four points and Alex Thomas had two.
In the semifinals, Milstead poured in 23 points in a 72-54 victory over Plainview.
The Pios took a 48-36 advantage in the third quarter and followed up with a 24-point outburst in the fourth.
Smith followed with 19 points and Meche pitched in 16 in the semifinal contest. Brice Brandon added 10 points while Johnson, Jacob Leleux and Joe Stringfellow each had two.
Warriors top Bulldogs
SOUTH CAMERON – Northside Christian’s Tracy Wilridge poured in 12 of his game-high 21 points in the fourth quarter to help lead the Warriors to a 44-43 come-from-behind victory over Iota at the South Cameron Tournament.
The Warriors also got 13 points from Bradly Ancelet and five each from Nick Zaunbrecher and Ty Wilson.
Iota was led by Steven Cooper and Curtis Antonie with 11 and 10 points, respectively.
Kyle Smith followed with eight points, Luke Reed had seven, Garrett Reppond scored five and Zack Hebert finished with two.
Lady Warriors win again
LAFAYETTE – The Northside Christian Lady Warriors won their fourth straight game Saturday with a 40-28 victory over Lafayette Christian.
Madeline Gatte led the offensive charge with 16 points and Madisyn Clement had 12. Kathryn Zaunbrecher added five points, Brooke Stanford had four and Zera Hanagriff rounded out the scoring with three.