Too Much Buggage Pushes Bourgeois Past Hahnville

Written by Kyle Valdez

H.L. Bourgeois guard Deondre Buggage knocked down six three-pointers in the first half to give his team a 42-32 lead over Hahnville. With the district lead on the line and Hahnville coming back stunningly, Buggage put the team’s scoring responsibilities on his back and led the Braves to a 77-72 win. The HL guard has always been known as a threat from deep, but Thursday night’s game sticks out as one of the most impressive shooting performances in recent memory from the bayou area.

Buggage showed off supreme confidence, matched with the accuracy of a sniper to finish the night with 38 points: 8 three-pointers and 8-8 from the charity stripe. It was nearly impossible to contain Buggage as he was pulling shots from nearly six feet beyond the arc at times and attacking the rim other possessions. Despite his huge night, Hahnville hung around all game and came up just short of stealing the game from the Braves’ grasp.

Big man Kaden Pierre led Hahnville with 25 points by finishing off multiple dunks and tip-ins around the rim. Tyren Lebeauf added 21 points, hitting 4 threes. Takarin Grows and Claudell Harris contributed 9 points and 10 points, respectively.

HLB’s freshman Demarcus Singleton gave the Braves an early boost, totaling 10 points in the first quarter to lead the Braves to a 21-12 lead after the first period. HL continued their offensive flow in the second quarter, outscoring the opposition 21-20 – taking a 42-32 lead into intermission. Although Hahnville trailed by 15 midway through the 2nd quarter, they were limited by their disability to hit open jump shots. They crashed the boards, resulting in multiple second chance looks, but simply couldn’t put the ball in the hole. Both squads failed to get back on defense, resulting in easy baskets for the opposition.

To open the half, Hahnville immediately cut the gap to 5 and hung around during the 3rd quarter. The Tigers did a better job with ball-denial on Buggage, holding him to just 4 points in the quarter. However, Buggage couldn’t be kept quiet for too long. In the fourth quarter, Buggage went off for 16 points and headlined an entertaining quarter of basketball. Hahnville got their first lead with 2:30 after a Claudell Harris 3-pointer. Buggage responded by knocking down two free throws on the other end, giving HL the final lead change of the contest.  
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Claudell Harris and Tyren Lebeauf knocked down multiple clutch shots to keep Hahnville a step behind the Braves, but Buggage had the answer every time - whether it was knocking down free throws or attacking the rim in transition. When the final buzzer sounded, the home team had the 77-72 advantage.

The win for HLB gives them at least a share of the district title with Hahnville in the ultra-competitive District 7-5A. Before the Braves can take a breath, their district finale is against a tough assignment in Thibodaux High. HLB, currently ranked #17 in Class 5A, continues to boost their seeding. The final week of the season should be very interesting for the Braves to see whether they can bump themselves up a few spots to guarantee home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. No matter what happens in the final week of the regular season, the Braves are still going to be a sleeper team in the 5A playoffs that can compete with anyone. Despite their lack of size, they have quality depth and one of the best scorers in the state.