Naomi B. Jones
March 11, 2008Exhibits
March 13, 2008
Despite an onslaught that brought them to within three points at the start of the 4th quarter, H.L. Bourgeois Braves lost the 5A State Championship game Saturday at the Lafayette Cajundome to the Lafayette Lions, 75-55.
“Second place stinks,” said Braves head coach Andrew Caillouet. “This stings right now … I don’t think we did anything wrong tonight. We just got beat by a better team.”
The Braves fell 75-55 during the LHSAA 5-A Finals before a nearly sell-out crowd of 12,984, on the campus of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.
“The kids played with so much heart and desire. They played as hard as they possibly could. We did everything we were supposed to do, except make enough shots,” Caillouet said.
“Lafayette is a great team. We knew that if we didn’t score, it was going to be because of ourselves. We didn’t make enough shots. We knew the difference for us was to stop them on defense, and we didn’t enough. I don’t know what they shot from the free throw line, but it was ungodly,” he said. “Our pressure worked. But every little chance we had, we threw it away. We had a couple of turnovers and we threw the ball a little too far.”
“This is our first runner-up (5A tournament title) in the school’s history, but it would have been nice to have our first championship in the school’s history,” Caillouet said. “But somebody’s got to win, and somebody’s got to lose a game.”
“A 20 point game doesn’t show it was a good one, but if you saw when we came back from 13, and then cut that down to one repeatedly – my kids put their heart and soul into it, and that’s all I can ask for as a coach,” he said.
The Braves had a 13-point deficit at the half, but returned to mount an onslaught in which they closed that gap to just three points to begin the 4th quarter.
“We thought we were wearing them down. That was evident,” Caillouet said. “But we couldn’t get the tempo of the game up high enough for us. Toward the end of the second quarter and through the third, the tempo was where we wanted it, but we just couldn’t hold on to it.”
Caillouet praised the Lions’ play. “They showed a veteran team that they were able to slow the game down, and kill the clock a bit during each possession. You credit the veteran club that they are and a well-coached club, to be able to do that.”
Brave point guard Stevie Howard said, “It looked like (the Lions) wanted it more. They came to play. They played good defense.”
Bourgeois finished the season 25-8.
“Everybody thought we couldn’t make it this far, but we made it, and we proved them wrong,” Howard said.
“When you look at it after the fact in retrospective, it’s going to be a good feeling, however, there’s always going to be that taint to it,” Caillouet said. “Somebody’s got to win, and somebody’s got to lose. All I ask as a coach is that if you win, win with class. And if you lose, hold your head up with dignity and realize they did a heck of a job to get this far.”
“But it stings. The sun will come up tomorrow, but it’s hard. Hard for my kids, hard for me, and really it’s hard for me personally, because I hurt for my kids.’
“I’m a very emotional person, and when you look at a bunch of 15- to 18-year-old kids crying their eyes out at the end of a game; that hurts – it hurts a lot. And you know, all I can do is be there for them,” the coach said.
Four Brave starters will graduate this year, Caillouet said.
“We can hopefully start working for next year. We’re a really young club,” he said. “It’s going to be tough for us to replace Josh Lee. No one in the state of Louisiana blocks shots like he does. And it’s going to be hard to lose Jordan Steib and Khiry Williams.”
Among the returners are Stevie and Tramel White, what Caillouet calls “the nucleus of our team.”
With the core in tact, Caillouet said he hopes the team will have another great season.
“It took me personally 18 years to get here, and I hope it won’t take 18 more,” he said.
The Braves’ had a total of 55 rebounds, while the Lions pulled down 75.
Howard had 10; Jordan Steib, 9; Josh Lee, 2; Tramel White, 14; and Nathaniel Singleton, 14.
The Braves shot 31 percent from the field, 20 percent from the 3-point line, and 50 percent from the free-throw line. The Lions sunk 55 percent from the 3-point line, 44 percent from the field and 71.4 percent from the free-throw line.
Bourgeois’ largest lead was by two during the first quarter, at 7:02 minutes.
The Lions’ largest lead was by 20 during the fourth quarter, with 35 seconds remaining on the clock.
Bourgeois had 28 points in the paint, compared to Lafayette’s 32.
Bourgeois had 12 points off turnovers versus Lafayette’s 13.
Lafayette’s Xavier Francis, voted the game’s Most Valuable Player, led the Lions with 23 points and 19 rebounds.
The H.L. Bourgeois Braves fell to the Lafayette Lions, winning second place in the 5A State Championship game Saturday at the Cajundome. “Second place stinks,” said Braves head coach Andrew Caillouet, pictured above with his team. * Photo by HOWARD J. CASTAY JR.
