By Luke Thompson

SHREVEPORT TIMES

SHREVEPORT — Bogalusa walked into Green Oaks with a noticeable size advantage Friday night.

It turned out the smaller Giants held the edge in nearly every other category, enabling them to pick up a 69-38 win in the first round of the 3A playoffs. A deep bench full of shooters exploded in the third quarter and earned the No. 12 seed a trip to No. 5 Patterson in the second round.

“All you do is you bring them down to your size,” Green Oaks senior Jonathan Bell said. “You play your game and you hold a lead and use the momentum as your advantage.”

The Giants also forced 12th-seeded Bogalusa to play at a fast pace, even though that meant not much scoring and a lot of turnovers as both teams struggled to find their footing. Lumberjacks forward Billy Mingo tied the game at six with the first two of his 12 points at the 2:37 mark of the first quarter before Green Oaks went on an 11-0 run over the next five minutes to take control.

After sitting out for most of the first half with two fouls, Deonte Crawford hit three of Green Oaks’ five 3-pointers in six minutes to turn an 11-point halftime lead into a 46-22 advantage.

The jumpers kept falling in the fourth quarter, when freshman Ahmad Green hit two 3-pointers to give the Giants 10 for the night from six different players, all in the last three quarters.

Kenny Robertson led Bogalusa in scoring with 14 points. He was one of two Lumberjacks in double-figures, as Mingo posted 12. Kenyatta Scott and Tramarcus Levi had three each and Laster Hills, Ronald McMorris and Desean Crumedy all had two for Bogalusa.

Bogalusa went 10-for-26 from the free-throw line (38.4 percent) and coach Ken Matthews said some of those were the front ends of 1-and-1s.

Bogalusa finished the season with a 16-10 record.

The Lumberjacks had five seniors on this year’s team, including Crumedy, Robertson, Scott, McMorris and Anthony White.

“We had a strong class,” Matthews said. “They showed leadership skills on and off the court. They made the transition to becoming their head coach an easy one. The fact that I was coaching boys and girls basketball and both teams made the playoffs, they played an integral part of that success.”

Daily News sports editor Chris Kinkaid contributed to this story.