For the first time since the 2020 season, the Jena Giants were making back-to-back playoff appearances this past Friday night, February 28. Last season, the Giants made the playoffs and defeated a very good Rosepine team in the first round before falling to Winnfield in the second round. This season the Giants finished the regular season with a 12-10 record and would earn the #20 seed in the Division III Non-Select state playoffs. They would take on #13 Ville Platte who came into the game with a 17-10 record.
The Giants would make the trip south to take on the Ville Platte Bulldogs in the first round of the playoffs. The Giants would get off to a great start as Jena senior Gavin Hoffpauir would score the first 10 points of the game for the Giants and give them a 10-4 lead. Ville Platte would come back though and finish the quarter on a 15-4 run to take a 1914 lead into the second quarter.
In the second quarter, Ville Platte would build their lead to as big as 8 at two different times, but the Giants would continue to fight and hang around. The Giants would finish the second quarter on a 5-0 run and Ville Platte would go into halftime with a 28-25 lead. Gavin Hoffpauir would lead the Giants with 17 points in the first half.
In the third quarter, it would look like Ville Platte would run away with the game as they would have their biggest leads of the night at 50-37 near the end of the quarter. But once again, the Giants would continue to fight and would not give up. Midway thru the fourth quarter, Ville Platte would have a ten-point lead at 5646. The Giants would then go on a 10-2 run to cut the deficit to 2 at 58-56.
At this point in the game, with the Giants on a run, Ville Platte would call a timeout. Out of the timeout, Ville Platte would put 6 players on the floor. The Jena fans and coaching staff were irate letting the officiating crew from Baton Rouge know that a technical should be called. The official would come over and then give Ville Platte another timeout allowing them to get the correct number of players on the floor. The Jena fans and coaches were visibly frustrated but with the game so close, they had to be careful to not get a technical foul called to give Ville Platte free throws. It was a very frustrating situation for the Jena side as it was clearly a blown call. Ville Platte would go on to score out of the timeout increasing their lead to four.
The Giants would be unable to come back as a couple of times they would get to within three but would end up losing the game 66-60. As a Jena fan, you have to be proud of the boys for fighting hard and never giving up in a tough situation.
In the game for the Giants Gavin Hoffpauir had 21 points, Daniel Hatcher had 16 points, Zadrien Cooper had 8 points, Zac Brown had 7 points, Xavier Brown had 6 points and Titan Smith had 2 points.
The Giants will miss the senior leadership of Gavin Hoffpauir and Blayne Shivers as they graduate this year but they will return a lot of experience for next season. The job that head coach Matthew Whittman and staff have done for this program has been incredible. When coach Whittman took over, this program was at the bottom of the district and he has now led them to back-to-back playoff appearances.
Next season the Giants will return a core of players that will have some of the most experience in the district. The future is bright for Jena Giants basketball. Congratulations Giants on another great season.
Photos from the games:
