According to Louisiana High School Athletic Association power rankings, the top four boys’ basketball teams in Class 3A are in North Louisiana.
Bossier High (28-3) has the No. 1 position, followed by Richwood (22-7), Farmerville (22-6) and Carroll (22-6). Richwood and Carroll are Monroe schools.
All four had no trouble advancing to the second round Tuesday night.
Two North Louisiana schools go head-to-head Friday night when Bossier High’s Bearkats travel to No. 15 Rayville for a second-round playoff game.
In the top two classes, the only North Louisiana school ranked among the top five is Ouachita of Monroe, which is No. 1 in 5A. The next highest ranking for a North Louisiana school in classes 5A and 4A is Ruston, No. 8 in 5A.
The only North Louisiana schools with Top Five rankings in 2A or A is North Webster, No. 5 in 2A.
The only Caddo-Bossier school in the Top Twenty in Class 5A is No. 15 Byrd
It is pretty much the same with Louisiana Sports Writers’ Association polls, which rely heavily on the LHSAA power rankings.
Two of Bossier High’s three losses were early-season games with Ouachita, sandwiched around the Bearkats’ 63-62 victory over the Lions. The only other blemish on the Bearkats’ record was a 50-48 loss to Class 4A St. Thomas More (Lafayette) in November. STM is the No. 2 seed in Class 4A
In the opening round of Class 3A state playoffs, Bossier High rolled past Port Barre 85-23 for its most one-sided victory of the season. (Second is a 72-29 rout of Parkway.)
The National High School Sports Record Book is no longer published, but the last one that was published credited Greg Procell of Ebarb, La., with national records for most points in a career (6,702) and most points in one season (3,173).
Players from small Louisiana schools dominated the listings for totals in several categories because small schools in Louisiana played more games than any schools in other states.
Nobody was close to Procell, but Bruce Williams of Florien, another small school in Sabine Parish, was second in career scoring in the 2004 record book with 5,367 points in a career ending in 1980 and another Louisiana player, Minden’s Jackie Moreland, was third with 5,030 in a career ending in 1956.
In the same book, Harold Ray Strother of Plainview (Glenmora) was listed second to Procell in one season scoring totals with 2,689 points in the 1958-59 season.
Williams was also credited with national records for most field goal attempts in a career (4,166) and a season (1,238), but I have serious doubts about those. Nobody at Ebarb attempted to keep up with Procell’s field goal attempts.
The number of games played by small schools in Louisiana was not a factor in another record listed in the 2004 book. Bobby Joe Douglas of Marion, La., had the highest per-game average for one season with 54.0 points per game in 1979-80. Douglas was also listed second for most points in one game for a losing team with 77, one under a record set by Rick Morrill of Pembroke (New Hampshire) Academy in 1965.
Jerry Byrd is the former sports editor of the Bossier Press-Tribune and an award-winning columnist. You can contact him by E-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
