Bayou defeats North Delta in round 1 of District Tournament

By Kristy Kitchings

The atmosphere inside the Bayou Academy gymnasium Thursday night resembled a SEC rivalry game between the Rebels and the Bulldogs as the No. 4 Bayou Academy Colts took on the No. 5 seed North Delta Greenwaves in the first round of the MAIS District 2-AA tournament.

Head Coach Robert Foust spent the earlier part of the week preparing his young men for the three day stretch of games and it paid off as the Colts defeated the Greenwaves in round one, 62-48.

The stage was set during regular season with each team having the home court advantage and taking the win at their own house.

In the first quarter, the Colts hung on to a 13-12 lead and remained focused heading into the second quarter of the game. Bayou took a 21-18 lead into the locker room at halftime.

The most exciting quarter of the game was the third quarter. Bayou’s Peyton Aldridge, who has struggled at the three-point arc all season, fed off the excitement of the student body and lit the scoreboard up. The Colts went on a 10-0 run with just under a minute left in the third to end the quarter up 40-30.

The fourth quarter belonged to Nat Jones and the sophomore stepped up big for the Colts hitting 7-8 free throws and extending the Colts lead to advance them to the second round of the district tournament with a 62-48 win over North Delta.

“I thought the crowd and student section gave us a lot more energy than we have had in the past and we needed that desperately,” said Head Coach Robert Foust.

“They did an excellent job of keeping the ball away from Tyler (Kitchings) under the goal with two and sometimes three men on him and left other offensive weapons wide open and we took advantage of that,” he added.

The win advanced the Colts to round two of the tournament to face No. 1 seed Indianola Academy tonight at 7:45 in Cleveland.