Revenge win

VILLE PLATTE -- Revenge was truly on the minds of the Pine Prairie Panthers, as they made the 15-mile trek across the parish to take on the Ville Platte High Bulldogs.
Ville Platte had defeated Pine Prairie twice this season already, once in the parish tournament and earlier in the district season.
But, the Panthers would not let the Bulldogs have a third victory, as Pine Prairie blew past Ville Platte 73-51 to keep themselves in the hunt for a playoff berth.
This win marked the fourth district win in a row for the Panthers, after losing four of their first five league games.
“It was big win for us,” stated Pine Prairie head coach Andrew Dwyer. “We knew that this is a tough place to play. But, we have everybody back and we have been playing well lately. With this win, we can hopefully stay in a position to make the post-season.”
Ville Platte on the other hand has now lost their last two district games by an average margin of 16 points. The Bulldogs have only scored 48 and 51 points respectfully in the last two games after averaging over 60 points on the season.
“Right now, we are starting to take a step backwards offensively, and it seems to be at the wrong time,” said Ville Platte head coach Tommy Jones. “We just can’t seem to make any shots lately. A lot of teams have been giving us different looks on defense and we just need to learn how to adjust before the playoffs roll around.”
Even with the huge point differential in the end, the game actually was a contest of momentum swings.
The game started pretty evenly in the first five minutes of play, as the game was tied 9-9 at the 3:05 mark of the first quarter.
Pine Prairie made a brief run in the final three minutes of the period and took an 18-11 lead as the opening stanza came to a close.
The Panthers hit a three-point basket to begin the second quarter and opened up an 11 point lead, 26-15, with 5:45 left to play in the half.
Ville Platte was not going to let the game get out of hand, however. The Bulldogs slowly crept back into the game, going on a 18-6 run to take a 33-32 lead with 1:11 left on the clock in the second period.
By the time the first half buzzer sounded, the Bulldogs held a 37-32 lead.
Coming out of the locker room, Pine Prairie knew they needed to make an adjustment defensively. So, the Panthers extended their zone defense and forced Ville Platte into some long distance shots that could not find the bottom of the net.
With the misses came long rebounds and several fast break opportunities for Pine Prairie. By the time the dust settled as the end of the third quarter, the Panthers held a 50-44 lead.
The final period mirrored the previous one, as Pine Prairie continued to put pressure on Ville Platte’s efforts to get back into the game.
The game really opened up for the Panthers in the six minutes of the fourth quarter, as Ville Platte did not score any points until Ernest Roberts hit two free throws with 1:51 left to go in the game.
From that point on, Pine Prairie went to a stall offense to close out the game.
The Panthers were led by Darnell Durgin, who netted 20 points. Ville Platte’s Martin Jason had 14 points to lead his team in the loss.
With the win Pine Prairie is now 16-12 on the year and 5-4 in district play. They will host Eunice on Tuesday night in their last contest of the year.
Ville Platte falls to 20-8 on the year and 6-3 in league play. They will travel to Church Point on Tuesday for their final game of the season.