The Jena Giants played two more games this past week, winning a non-district game and losing their final district game.
On Tuesday, February 11, the Giants returned home to take on the Dodson Panthers in a non-district matchup. The Giants are trying to pick up as many wins as they can to finish the season with as high of a power ranking as they can get for the playoffs.
The Giants would outscore Dodson 29-7 in the second quarter and would cruise to a 66-33 win over Dodson. The Giants would make seven threepoint shots in the game.
Zac Brown would make two three-point shots and would lead the Giants with 14 points. Freshman Brittain Johnson would make three threepoints shots and would finish with 11 points. Daniel Hatcher had 9 points, Blayne Shivers had 7 points, Xavier Brown had 7 points, Zadrien Cooper had 6 points, Gavin Hoffpauir had 6 points, Titan Smith had 4 points and Kameron Hoffpauir had 2 points.
On Friday, February 14, the Giants would travel to Marksville for their final district game of the season. A year ago, the Giants would pick up their biggest win of the season at Marksville. The Tigers would go on to win a state championship later in the season. This year Marksville would come into the game with a 5-0 district record while the Giants would come in with a 4-1 district record. If the Giants could pick up the win they would earn a share of the district championship.
Both teams would be pretty even in the first quarter as Marksville would take a 10-7 lead into the second quarter. Marksville would start the second quarter on a 12-0 run. The Giants would come back with their own 6-0 run but would be playing catch up from this point. Marksville would outscore Jena 26-13 in the quarter to take a 3620 lead into halftime.
Marksville guard Bralyn Bazile would have an incredible shooting night as he would make 10 threepoint shots in the game and would lead all scorers with 30 points. Marksville would go on to win 62-42.
In the game for the Giants, Zadrien Cooper had 15 points, Brittain Johnson had 8 points, Gavin Hoffpauir had 7 points, Daniel Hatcher had 5 points, Zac Brown had 4 points and Xavier Brown had 3 points.
The Giants finish district play with a 4-2 district record. They finish district in third place behind Bunkie and Marksville. The Giants overall record is now 11-9 on the season.
The Giants will have two home games this week to finish their regular season. On Tuesday, February 18, the Giants will be at home against Claiborne Christian. On Friday, February 21, the Giants will be at home against ASH. Both teams will give the Giants opportunities to pick up lots of power points. The Giants are currently ranked #21 in the power rankings and are looking to move up to get a better playoff seed.
Everyone come out and fill up the gym to cheer on the Giants this week as they finish up their regular season.
Photos from them Marksville game:
