No school in Jackson Parish has ever won a girls prep state basketball championship. It won’t happen this year either. That was assured Tuesday evening when Jonesboro-Hodge and Quitman, both who entered the contests as home favorites according to their seeds, got bounced from the 2020-21 LHSAA playoffs – HARD!
They weren’t alone as it was a bad night for north Louisiana teams all around. Only two team from the Jackson Parish Journal coverage area are still alive (Cedar Creek and Lincoln Prep) and only ten teams from above Alexandria lived to play another round. Four of those were in Class 5A (West Monroe, Captain Shreve, Parkway and Benton) while two play in Division IV (Cedar Creek and Ouachita Christian.) Of special note Huntington of Shreveport beat Bolton 100-31 in Class 4A action for the most points scored in the playoffs to date. In other contests involving JPJ coverage area teams Ruston fell to Hahnville 42-38, Choudrant lost to Anacoco 63-38 and Calvin fell to Reeves 64-39.
Bell City 47 Quitman 42: Behind Clara Womack’s five trey’s Quitman led 21-19 at the half. In the second half Quitman personified the temperatures that plagued the area last week as they went cold, as in bitter frigid cold. The Lady Wolverines made only four baskets and just 11 points the entire second half. It wasn’t as if Bell City was doing anything special as Quitman had many good looks that just didn’t go down.
“It was just one of those nights where we just couldn’t score, especially in the second half,” said QHS head coach Kyle Leach. “I am extremely proud of our defensive effort as we held one of the best scorers in the state well below her average and even though we couldn’t make anything still had a chance till late when we had to start taking chances.”
The loss ended one of the best seasons in QHS history that saw the Lady Wolverines win 23 games against only 3 losses. Bell City improves to 16-7 and now faces #5 Anacoco. Womack led Quitman with 19 points followed by Emma Carter with eight. Brayli Stewart and Cali Deal with three each and Kaylee Ford had two. Bell City was led by Josie Ogea with 19.
Rayville 86 JHHS 64: The Lady Tigers were simply overmatched by the swarming Hornets who was noticeably quicker, shot better, out-rebounded and forced more turnovers in the contest played at Weston High due to the JHHS gymnasium still not having water available. That is not a slight to J-H, who ended the year with 13-6 record. Rayville is just all around a better team, that makes one wonder how in the world they got a #9 ranking.
Of the nine losses they suffered this year seven were to Class 5A schools. The other two were to the second ranked team in Division II, which is the equivalent of a Class 3A school. The undefeated district 2-2A champs have now won 10 in a row to improve to 16-9 and since their district schedule and the two playoffs games they are averaging 80 points a game, by far the best in the state. Xabrianna Jackson led JHHS with 28 points followed by Chamya Waters with 15 and Yahzmynne Andrews with 10. Zymea Hoggro had seven and Jessica Bradford four. Rayville was led by Amari West who had 40 points and Lalaina Wood with 12.
Stars live up to the hype! The two contests pitted four of the better guards in the state in seniors Bell City’s, Josie Ogea and Quitman’s, Clara Womack in the Class B matchup w and junior’s Xabrianna Jackson and Amari West of Rayville. Each came in with star billing and lived up to the hype by playing tremendously. Ogea, who is committed to play at LSU-Eunice, scored 10 points of her 20 points in the pivotal fourth quarter to break open a close game while Womack was unstoppable in the first half making five trey’s and scoring 17 points. Jackson also had a big night with 28 points that included an impressive 10 of 12 showing from the free throw line but none had the game that West had. The junior Rayville standout made three trey’s, went 7/7 from the line and scored 38 of her 40 points in only three quarters.
| #13 Bell City (16-7) | 8 | 11 | 10 | 18 | 47 |
| #4 Quitnan (23-3) | 10 | 11 | 4 | 7 | 32 |
BCHS scoring: Ogea 20, Merritt 10, Leonards 9, Wiche 6, Folse 2
QHS scoring: Womack 19, Carter 8, Stewart 3, Deal 3, Ford 2
| #8 JHHS (13-6) | 13 | 19 | 16 | 16 | 64 |
| #9 Rayville (16-9) | 22 | 24 | 24 | 21 | 86 |
JHHS scoring: Andrews 28, Waters 15, Andrews 10, Hoggro 7, Bradford 4
RHS scoring; West 40, Wood 12, Smith 11, Miller 9, Webb 8, Webb 3, Jackson 2, Jones 1