Carter, Branch, Porter combine for 81 points to lead 7-0 start

BY KEVIN CHIRI

Publisher

RESERVE – And still they wait.

The Reserve Christian boys basketball team moved their season record out to 7-0 at their home court on Tuesday night, routing the visiting Gables High team from Baton Rouge, 123-76.

It was the seventh win of the season without a loss for the Eagles, but still left the club looking for their first tight game of the year.

That close contest is expected to happen on Monday when the Eagles host the 5A Catholic League Shaw Eagles.

But on this night, even the 6-10 presence of Gables post man Claude Britten didn’t begin to slow down the runnin’ Eagles.

Sprinting out of the gates from the outset, Reserve Christian led 31-12 in the first quarter and never was threatened, at times doubling the score on the visiting Mustangs even after the Eagles hit the century mark.

“They had a talented team, but we play such an up tempo game and I think it was obvious they just couldn’t stay with us,” RCA head coach Tim Byrd said. “I think we still have things to work on, but for tonight, it was a good game.”

Reserve Christian is aiming at winning its third state championship in the past four years, and appears to be a strong favorite to do so.

But Byrd is also shooting for the team to continue its national reputation at some big tournaments this season, such as “Rumble in the Ridge” in Arkansas, the “American Press Invitational” in Lake Charles, the “City of Palms Classic” in Fort Myers, Fla., the “Academy National Invitational” in Houston, Tx., and the “Flyin’ to the Hoop Invitational” in Dayton, Ohio.

“We are going to be playing some great teams in some of those tournaments,” Byrd said. “So we’ve got to learn to play 32 minutes of high intensity basketball for when we take those guys on.”

While the offense for the Eagles was running at a high clip-shooting 55 percent in the first half when the starters stayed in-it was the defense that seemed especially impressive in the first half.

Reserve Christian held Gables to only 16 percent from the field in the first quarter, then 23 percent from the field in the second quarter, boosting them to a huge 69-27 halftime lead.

“Yea, 69 points is a lot for a half,” Byrd agreed. “But one time we scored 88 in a half.

“I really thought we had some strong play tonight from Justin Porter, Kevin Branch with a good floor game, and Oscar Joseph off the bench,” he added.

While superstar Demond “Tweetie” Carter tossed in 36 points to lead the team, despite not having one of his best three-point shooting nights, it was the balance behind him that made it clear this is not a one-dimensional team.

Branch, the up-and-coming star along with Carter, scored 23 points in the game, including 17 in the first half to go with eight rebounds and three blocked shots.

Justin Porter, a 6-5 junior, only managed one bucket in the first half, but was unstoppable in the third quarter when he hit nearly everything he put up, with 16 points in that period alone. He finished the game with 22 points.

Tino Brozos displayed a nice touch from outside the arc as he finished with 15 points, then Joseph knocked down five buckets in the fourth quarter on his way to 12 points.

Gables (5-5) might have thought they were going to give the highly touted RCA team a game at the outset as Jeff Alexander, who finished with 26 points in the game, hit the first shot of the night.

But that only got the Eagles heated up as they cored 12 straight to lead 12-2 with 6:10 in the period.

Carter scored 12 in the first quarter and Branch had 11 to lead the way, then Carter led the second period surge with 17 points as the game was broken up, and Byrd was able to play everyone on the team.