For Bastrop High, Tuesday night’s regular season basketball opener against Ouachita Christian serves a two-fold purpose.
Besides the excitement of tipping off a new season, the 7:30 p.m. home contest affords the Rams the opportunity to mercifully close the book on a forgettable 4-20 showing for good.
As bad as last year was, it wasn’t like the dropoff was unexpected.
“It was just one of those years that you go through every now and then. We graduated everybody that played any amount of time the year before,” coach David Patrick said. “Basically, we played a varsity schedule with a JV team.”
Having lost only two seniors — guards DeAndre Dangerfield and McArthur Jones — the Rams have had time to mature through the hard knocks.
“After last year’s campaign, we’re cautiously optimistic,” Patrick said. “We still have some growing up to do, but we have a good core of kids that had a good summer. I expect us to be much-improved.
“That being said, our district has gotten tougher. We essentially lost Carroll and replaced them with Wossman. Then we added a good 5A program in Ruston.”
At least the Rams appear to be better equipped to compete in the challenging league this time around. By necessity, the Rams have employed a three-guard offense for the past three years. Heck, the Rams basically played a four-guard scheme last year.
Once the football players arrive, the Rams could line up 6-4, 6-3 and 6-3 across the front line.
“We don’t have anybody 6-8 or 6-9, but we will look more like a 4A basketball team than we have over the last few years as far as our size,” Patrick said. “Being able to hold our own on the boards has been so difficult for us for the past three years. Having a little size to protect the basket allows you to do more offensively and defensively. It allows you to transition more, maybe come up with some offensive rebounds and be more aggressive offensively and defensively.”
Patrick was encouraged by a respectable showing in the summer league against the likes of Carroll, Wossman and Richwood.
“We had the best summer we’ve had since I’ve been here,” said Patrick, who enters his fifth year on the Rams’ bench. “I thought we competed against the real heavyweights of our area and held our own better than in any of our previous years. Hopefully, some of that will carry over into the season.”
In addition to summer league play, William Lee (6-3, so.) and Adrian Witherspoon (6-4, jr.) played for successful AAU teams.
Bastrop will still field a relatively young squad. In contrast to last season, however, the Rams have depth and experience at every position.
“Hopefully by the time district play rolls around, depth will be our strong suite,” Patrick said. “We have several players in the mix. We can put different lineups on the floor at different times. We have a lot of players who are interchangeable position-wise and skill-wise.”
Patrick’s biggest challenge may be finding enough playing time to keep everybody happy.
“The flip side of having depth is you have to develop a chemistry among different players,” Patrick said. “Sometimes when you have a lot of depth, it can be a negative if you don’t develop the right chemistry.”
Bastrop split two games in Saturday’s Madison Parish Jamboree, defeating Lake Providence 34-20 and losing to Madison 25-22.
Trey Baldwin led the Rams with 12 points vs. Lake Providence, while Tobias Haynes had six vs. Madison.
Baldwin (6-3, so.), a 2 guard, and Haynes (6-1, jr.), a power forward, will be joined in the starting five Tuesday night by point guard Donald Washington (5-9, sr.), small forward Keith Walker (6-1, so.) and center Arthur Moses (6-1, sr.). Washington was a part-time starter last season.
Available off the bench are senior Donquarius Moore (6-0, sr.), juniors Kelvin Hawkins (5-10) and Jessie Akins (5-10, jr.) and sophomores Jessie Larkins (5-6), Justin Douglas (6-1), Deon Rabun (6-1), and Keenan Williams (5-10). Senior Brandon Haynes (6-0) will begin the season on the injury list.
Expected to report from football are Witherspoon, Lee, Jonathan Daniels (6-4, jr.), Darren Anderson (6-1, jr.), Rodney Heard (6-2, sr.), Jermaine Robinson (6-1, so.) and Kevin Chatman (6-0, sr.). Anderson, Witherspoon and Daniels started last season, while Heard started on a part-time basis.
Freshmen vying to move up the depth chart include Chris Anderson, Domarkiyo Devoil, DeQuan Jenkins, Alex Lollie, Dontae Moore, Kederius Moore, Jacolby Ricks, Xavier Thomas and Marquis Watson.
BASTROP —
