St. Martinville boys turn in dominant showing in Division II non-select opening-round win

By Mike Coppage

Photo of St. Martinville's Jevion Sam (with ball) by Kristina Savoy

ST. MARTINVILLE, La. - With the top four seeds in the Division II non-select bracket getting first-round byes, St. Martinville was the highest seed to play an opening round game.

The fifth-seeded Tigers, who hosted No. 28 DeRidder on Friday, were sharp from the opening tip. Delian Mallery's 24 points paced St. Martinville, which cruised to an 87-45 win.

The Tigers will host No. 11 Plaquemine (20-12), a 65-41 winner against No. 21 Crowley, in a regional playoff game on Tuesday.

Harvey Broussard's lay-up opened the scoring for the 22-11 Tigers, who never trailed. At the 2:25 mark of the first quarter, Semont Fairley's 3-pointer brought the Dragons within five, 14-9.

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The Tigers responded with a 17-0 run. Broussard was 4-for-4 from the field in the first quarter with three consecutive 3-pointers. All three of the senior's treys were from the corner.

"We were hoping that would happen," Tigers coach Ihmaru Jones said. "We were hoping to make them come out of that zone and go to a man-to-man defense.

"They were wide-open looks. The way a 1-2-2 zone works, the defense is in a box where it takes them forever to get out there. Those were some clean looks; he knocked them down."

Broussard was perfect from the floor, sinking all seven of his field goals and finishing with 17 points, seven rebounds, five blocks, three assists and three steals.

"I came out motivated and ready to get it popped off," Broussard said. "I couldn't wait for the playoff game to start. I was anxious, but I was just ready to get the playoffs started.

"I told my teammates that once I hit the first couple of shots, to keep feeding me the ball."

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In addition to scoring a career-high 24 points, Mallery had three assists. The junior combo guard made seven of his first eight field goals and went 5-for-5 from the floor in the third quarter.

Senior point guard JayVyn Duncan contributed 22 points and four rebounds. Senior forward Jevion Sam added 15 points with four rebounds and two blocks.

The Tigers shot 78.2 percent (36-of-46) from the field en route to winning their 14th consecutive game.

"I felt like we had some good runs where we got out there, ran the floor and got easy buckets," Jones said. "We've been working on that the past couple of weeks because some of these teams don't get back on defense. I wanted to exploit that."

Broussard got the 17-0 run started with a triple from the corner at the 2:10 mark of the first quarter. Duncan followed with a mid-range jumper and a corner 3 of his own.

A pair of free throws from freshman Kervin Fontenette expanded the lead to 24-9 at the end of the first.

Duncan opened the second quarter with another corner 3. Sam fed an assist to Broussard for a lay-up, and Mallery went to the rim with authority on back-to-back lay-ups.

"I knew it was coming for Delian," Duncan said. "He's a great player. I knew he had it in him. He really got after it (Friday)."

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On several of his buckets, Mallery drove straight through the lane and fought off the DeRidder defenders with ease. He ended the night shooting 10-of-13 (77 percent) from the floor.

"That was great," Jones said. "To me, that's the best part of his game because he can get up there and score. He can challenge shot-blockers. We want him to drive, get up there and score."

Fairley was the only Dragon in double-figures with 25 points. Ronald Jarden, Kenias St. Romain and Bryant Hammond scored five points apiece.

Fairley, a 5-foot-8 junior, scored 17 points in the first half with five 3-pointers.

"We need to be conscious of where (opposing) shooters are," Jones said. "We forgot where (Fairley) was. We were up 39-13 and let him make three 3's back to back to back.

"For the next game, we'll have the same game plan while just making sure we execute better and not let the other team's shooters have a game like No. 4 (Fairley) had (Friday)."

DeRidder concluded the season with a 13-17 record.