Lesson learned?

VILLE PLATTE —Lessons are learned, sometimes they are learned the hard way.
Hopefully, the Ville Platte High Bulldogs can take the lesson learned in their 70-52 district opening loss to the Eunice Bobcats and get back to the gritty play that has defined the program.
At least that is what Bulldog head coach Tommy Jones hopes.
“Tonight the effort was not there,” said Jones after the game. “We told them all week that if you do not box out on defense, you will lose this game. They did not box out and look what happened. We just plain got out hustled tonight.”
That lack of effort showed early in the contest. The Eunice Bobcats came out very aggressive in the first quarter and moved ahead 12-3 at the 3:46 mark of the opening period.
Ville Platte tried to claw their way back into the game, cutting the lead to six with 2:08 remaining.
However, Eunice continued to manhandle Ville Platte on the boards, especially on the offensive side of the court, and opened an 11 point advantage, 21-10 as the quarter came to a close.
It was more of the same in the second quarter. The Bobcats stretched the lead to 17 on three straight baskets to open the period.
Ville Platte settled down and worked the Eunice advantage back down to 12 with a little over two minutes to go in the quarter.
As the buzzer sounded to end the half, things remained the same from the opening quarter, with Eunice holding an 11 point lead, 37-26.
It did not help that Ville Platte was ice cold from the field the entire first half. And, for a team that relies on their outside shooting, a bad night from the field does not bode well.
“It was just one of those nights,” stated Jones. “We normally hit a lot of the baskets that we missed tonight. It just was not falling for us.”
Ville Platte came out of the locker room and seemed to get their aggressiveness back to start the third quarter.
The Bulldogs hit the first two baskets of the period to cut the lead back down to eight, 38-30. But, Eunice seemed to have a response every time it looked like Ville Platte was getting momentum back on their side.
The biggest factor in the third quarter for Eunice was the play from center Mitchell Cormier. The big man exerted himself on the boards and offensively scoring six of the Bobcat’s 14 points in the quarter.
Ville Platte still only trailed by eight points with 54 seconds left to go in the quarter. But, Eunice hit two huge buckets, a two-pointer and a desperation three-point basket by Halen Jack, as time expired, to take a commanding 51-38 lead.
Eunice and Ville Platte exchanged baskets to open the fourth quarter, making the score 55-42 with 5:58 remaining in the game.
The Bulldogs cut the lead back down to 11 again, as they went on a six point mini-run in the next 1:28.
Once again, Eunice had an answer for Ville Platte. The Bobcats took advantage of lazy defense on the fast break and reeled off nine straight points to put a 20 point gap between themselves and the Bulldogs.
The rest of the game was little more than mop up work for Eunice, as they closed out the game by stalling the ball on offense.
Kelian Semien lead the way for Ville Platte with 15 points.
With the loss, Ville Platte falls to 6-8 on the year and 0-1 in district play.
For the Bulldogs, a loss to begin district maybe a hard pill to swallow, but it does not signal the end for their chances of still winning the district crown.
However, according to Jones, this battle may be lost, but the war has just begun.
“We are going to need to put this game behind us and get re-focused quickly,” said Jones. “We have two tough games coming up this week. We travel to Port Barre and Northwest. It is going to be a tough test for us, but I think our players will respond in a positive way. We have no other choice.”