Bears suffer pair of holiday hoop losses

North Iberville High’s boys basketball team suffered a pair of recent holiday losses as their overall record dipped to 4-11.

Coach Charles Schurba’s young Bear varsity has played a tough pre-district slate of upper classification opponents in recent weeks. The locals lost 77-71 to 2-A neighbor Livonia High, a club rated in the top 25 of its classification. They followed up that loss with a 50-40 loss at the hands of 2-A Clinton High last Friday.

The Bears started flat against Livonia and fell behind by a huge 35-4 first-quarter score. However, the NI boys battled back behind a 20-point scoring explosion by 6-4 center Tre’vion Hawkins and rallied for a 34-14 margin in the stanza to get back into the contest only to fall behind again in the final quarter and to lose by a six-point margin.

Hawkins finished the outing with a 30-point scoring performance. Korbin Scott also had a solid offensive effort with 20 points. Seventh-grade guard Nicholas Parker tallied 6 points, while senior Nikita Woolfolk tallied 5 points. Tred James netted 4 points, while the trio of Deon Philson, Steven Williams, and Treven Trusclair combined for 6 more NIHS points.

In their prior contest against 2-A Clinton, the Bears attempted to battle back from 12-2 first-quarter deficit but found hosting 2-A Eagles to be too tough to handle as the 1-A locals fell by 10 points in the road outing.

The hosting Eagles were rated 34th in Class 2-A boys’ basketball, while the NI Bears were ranked 35th in 1-A hoop by the unofficial Ken Ramsey power ratings last week.

North was down by a 29-18 score at intermission, but managed to shave a couple of points off the Clinton lead in the third stanza, but it was too little too late.

Hawkins paced the NIHS attack with a team-high 12 points. Jessie Ward added 9, while Scott netted 6 points. Torray Collins meshed in 4 points, while Parker added 3 markers. Williams, James, and Philson combined evenly for 6 more NIHS points.

Terrell Caesar led Clinton with a game-high 18 points.

Clinton also won the Junior Varsity game by eking out a narrow 36-35 victory.

The Bears open District 9-A competition in two weeks by visiting White Castle High on Tuesday, Jan. 20.