CCHS Eagles will meet familiar foe in Panthers

The Central Catholic Eagles will face a familiar foe in Tensas High School in Class 1A bi-district action in Morgan City Thursday at 7 p.m.
The contest will be the third time in the last three years the Eagles and the Panthers will meet in the first round, with Central Catholic taking blowout victories in the first two meetings and in a third contest a few years ago.
Just as in years past, Central Catholic coach Ree Case said the No. 20 seed Panthers are athletic, noting they are a “streaky” shooting team that is “scary” because of the number of athletes they have.
Conversly, Central Catholic has featured a different look this year as the highlight days of Lloyd Grogan and Dontrell Brown are gone.
The Eagles feature a much younger squad led by seniors Nick Case and Tyler Hoffpauir, two returning starters from a year ago along with many times, a combination of freshmen and sophomores on the court.
“We just had to change what we did. We obviously (are) not playing above the rim like we have the past couple years. We’re not as athletic so we’ve relied more on the 3-point shot and we’ve played a lot more half-court basketball this year and we’ve actually played a lot more zone defense, which we haven’t really played in the past.”
Coach Case said Hoffpauir and Nicholas Case have done a good job of providing leadership this year.
While they lost both games, the Eagles have shown improvement in recent contests against Lafayette Christian and Patterson.
Coach Case said he thought his squad came together during that contest, noting they should have won it but couldn’t make a lot of shots in the third quarter.
Against Central Catholic, he said his squad showed toughness and didn’t quit in battling back from a 20-point deficit to single digits at one point.
“I thought we just grew up during those two games and hopefully that will carry into Thursday night against Tensas,” Case said.
Admission to Thursday night’s game will be $7.
The contest will be broadcast on KBZE 105.9 FM and KFRA 1390 AM.