By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

LAFAYETTE – In reaching the Class 5A championship game of the State Farm Top 28 basketball tournament, Hahnville proved a whole lot of people wrong.

But the first boys basketball state championship in the school’s history will have to wait after a 70-53 defeat at the hands of No. 2 seeded Ouachita at the Cajundome Saturday night.

“They just really guarded us tonight,” Hahnville coach Brian Lumar said of Ouachita. “So I say congratulations.

“But,” he vowed to the assembled postgame media, “we’ll be back. I look forward to it.”

It was the first state championship for the Lions, a high-octane, guard-led unit that finished the season 36-4.

“Last year, we lost a game I felt we should have won in the quarterfinals,” said Ouachita coach Casey Jones. “I saw the tears in their eyes. I saw the hurt. Since then, our goal wasn’t to win 30 games or win our district, but to win a state championship.”

Hahnville (31-8), the tournament’s No. 12 seed, erased a seven-point halftime deficit to pull into a 42-42 tie at the end of the third quarter. But the Lions made their winning push early in the fourth. Within the first 1:49 of play, Ouachita scored 10 unanswered points to go ahead 52-42, pulling away for good.

That run began with a steal and two baskets by the Lions’ Mike Shaw, who finished with 18 points.

“We had an unforced turnover, which led to an easy basket, which led to a run,” said Lumar. “I don’t think we played with the kind of intensity like we usually do on every single possession. We came in spurts.”

Said Jones: “I told the guys that the first two-to-three minutes would probably decide this game. I asked them to take our defense to another level.”

Back-to-back 3-pointers by sharpshooting guard Nick Haywood pushed the Lions’ 46-42 lead to 52-42, perhaps the true pivotal moment of the game.

Haywood scored 21 points and made five of his nine 3-point attempts on his way to earning Most Outstanding Player honors.

“We didn’t want to let him breathe tonight,” Lumar said. “We left a player that we knew could hurt us wide open on a consistent basis.”

Said Hahnville senior guard Desmond Raymond: “We didn’t pay enough attention to him. We lost the momentum there.”

Jared Kinsey led Hahnville in scoring with 13 points, and four other Tigers – Derek Raymond, Desmond Raymond, Derek Howard and Warren LeBeauf scored eight.

But Ouachita’s suffocating pressure forced Hahnville into 39-percent shooting in the game, compared to the 55-percent mark hit by the Lions.

“You shoot (38-percent) from the field, you’re not helping your situation at all,” Lumar said. “They defended us like we usually defend people. They get up into you. They make you uncomfortable.”

Lumar conceded that the Tiger defense was compromised when center Jauries Thomas got into early foul trouble.

“We had to switch to a zone to keep from fouling, but then they started to hit outside shots,” said Lumar. “They were much quicker than we were, so that also presents matchup problems defensively.”

After Byron Gauthier’s 3-pointer at the end of the first half cut a nine-point Ouachita lead to six, Hahnville’s best chance came in the third quarter. Trailing 36-30 with 3:34 left, the Tigers drew within three on a Kinsey 3-pointer from the top of the key.

Haywood answered quickly with a 3 of his own, but Desmond Raymond’s three-point play and a short jumper by LeBeauf made it 39-38 with 2:33 left in the third quarter. Howard’s bank shot at the 55-second mark tied the game at 40, the first tie since 0-0.

The fourth quarter belonged to Ouachita, though. The Lions outscored Hahnville 28-11 the rest of the way.

“We might have run out of gas there,” Lumar said. “Ouachita sucked it out of us.”

Whether that was true or not, Lumar made it clear that his group had nothing to hang their heads over.

“From day one, these guys believed they could win it all,” Lumar said. “I wouldn’t trade these guys for the world.”