Basketball fans of several local teams got a preview Thursday night at the Varnado High School Basketball Jamboree.
Nine teams, including eight from Washington Parish, took part in the nine-game event. Teams played a 10-minute game with a running clock until the 2-minute mark at which time it went back to standard clock-operating rules where it stopped on the whistle.
Several games featured some very competitive action, as five were decided by five points or fewer and the last four games were decided by three points or less.
Varnado boys coach Brett Cooper said the event was a success.
“All of the teams had a good turnout. We had nine teams. Overall, it went pretty good, pretty smooth,” Cooper said.
Four teams had new coaches in the jamboree and all have ties to Varnado. Cooper is a first-year coach for Varnado’s boys while Cashanda Nichols is coaching the Varnado girls’ team. Brad Oestriecher, who coached at Varnado for the three previous seasons, is now at Franklinton, and Drew Meyerchick, who played at Varnado under his father Paul Meyerchick at Varnado from 2003-05 and whose number is retired at Varnado, is now coaching Pine’s boys’ team.
The jamboree tipped off with Franklinton’s girls’ team defeating Varnado, 11-0.
The Lady Demons led 7-0 at the 5:49 mark. Varnado’s defense kept the margin at 7-0 for nearly the next four minutes, but Franklinton scored four points over the final 1:52 for the 11-0 win.
The second game saw Franklinton’s boys defeat Pine, 18-8.
The Demons got out to a 12-3 lead. Pine trimmed it to 14-8 with 1:29 left. Franklinton added four more points over that time in the victory.
Up next, Pine’s girls won 11-6 against Bogalusa.
The Lady Raiders led 8-6 with 1:05 on the clock. Pine scored the contest’s final three points on a field goal by Savannah Kennedy with 41 seconds to go and a free throw from Kaylyn Ginn with 15.3 left.
Bogalusa’s boys won the fourth game 21-5 over Varnado.
The contest was tied 4-4 with 6:40 left. Bogalusa went on a 12-0 run and led 16-4 with 2:31 left and closed the contest on a 5-1 run for the 21-5 victory.
Pine’s girls were back on the floor for the following game and were once again solid defensively in a 9-0 win over Varnado.
The Lady Raiders led 3-0 at the 8:23 mark. The Lady Raiders added to their lead with 4:39 on the clock and scored four more over the final 1:09.
Games 6-9 were extremely competitive, as each was decided by three points or less.
The first of those had Pine’s boys’ team defeating Jewel Sumner 14-13.
Jewel Sumner led 13-12 with 1:18 left. Just 13 seconds later, Pine’s Ty Galloway pulled down an offensive rebound, hit the putback and got fouled. He missed the free throw, but his bucket gave the Raiders the 14-13 lead and they went on to win by that score.
Franklinton’s girls won the next contest, 4-2, over Bogalusa.
It was a 2-0 game with 1:30 left. Franklinton’s India Dickerson hit a shot to make it 4-0. Bogalusa’s Lulu Ball was successful on a field goal with 19 seconds to go.
Neither team scored after that in Franklinton’s 4-2 win.
Sticking with the theme of one-possession games, Bogalusa’s boys topped Franklinton 14-13.
Bogalusa’s Tramarcus Levi broke a 13-13 tie with 0.2 seconds left by hitting a free throw to make it 14-13. Franklinton took a desperation shot at the buzzer that was no good, as the Lumberjacks won that game by one.
The final game of the night was an 11-8 win by Varnado’s boys over Jewel Sumner.
The Wildcats got out to an 11-4 lead with 1:38 left.
Jewel Sumner scored four unanswered points over the next 1:08, but couldn’t complete the comeback, as the host team won the last game 11-8.