Neville will provide the opposition as the Bastrop Lady Rams’ seniors play their final regular season home game tonight against Neville. A traditional Senior Night ceremony will precede the girls game at 6 p.m.
Bastrop’s games at West Ouachita have been moved from Friday to Thursday to accommodate a possible playoff game for the girls district championship. Bastrop and Ruston both enter the final week of the regular season with 7-1 records, having split the regular season series.
If necessary, a tiebreaker game would be played on Friday at 6 p.m. at a neutral site to be determined.
Bastrop coach Emma Brooks is more focused on the task at hand than a possible Friday game.
“We have to take care of Neville tonight,” coach Brooks said. “Neville could very well come in here and cause us some problems if we’re not ready to play ball.”
Brooks’ concerns about the Lady Tigers aren’t unfounded. Neville dealt the Lady Rams (24-3) their first loss of the season by taking a 63-58 decision on Dec. 17 in the Carroll Tournament. Bastrop bounced back to defeat the Lady Tigers 61-45 in Monroe on Jan. 22 in the first round of conference play.
“We know about Neville’s guards,” coach Brooks said. “We have to be prepared for them defensively. When we went to their place, we were ready to play. That doesn’t have anything to do with this game. They are going to come in here and try to up their position for the playoffs.”
Traneshia Smith pumped in 18 points to lead the Lady Rams in the Jan. 22 meeting. Rosa Bryant added 15 and Jade Benton pitched in 13. Xandra Dowd was high scorer for Neville with 10.
Regrouping from their first conference setback — a 54-36 loss at Ruston — the Lady Rams handled Wossman 59-34 on Friday night.
Smith paved the way with 12 points and Sharnice Brooks put up 10 points and 10 rebounds. Bastrop received scoring from 10 different players.
While Bastrop’s boys squad has four games remaining on the regular season docket, the reality of the situation is that the playoffs start tonight for the Rams.
Friday night’s 54-36 loss to first place Wossman dropped the Rams to 11-14 overall and 2-4 in district.
Johnathan Ross had 17 points for the Wildcats (23-6, 6-0), followed by Miguel Gipson with 14 and James Augurson with 12. Adrian Witherspoon was a bright spot for the Rams offensively with 13 points.
Bastrop shot a frigid 28.8 percent (15-of-52) from the floor, including zero-for-9 from beyond the 3-point circle.
Wossman jumped out to an early 8-0 lead and the Rams were never closer than four the rest of the evening.
“I told the kids after the game that we played well enough defensively and we played hard enough,” Bastrop coach David Patrick said. “Offensively, we didn’t get any shots to fall early and we started pressing.”
Neville, which comes into tonight’s game in the hunt for second place, won the first round meeting 59-52.
Xavier Henderson paced the Tigers with 14 points, Dedrick Garrison flipped in 13 and Delarious Jones 12. Rodney Heard scored what was at the time a career-high 17 points for the Rams. Witherspoon tacked on 14 points and Donald Washington 12.
BASTROP —
