MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / January 26, 2000

BOUTTE – “Defense wins championships.”That is the point Hahnville coach Alvin Gauthier preaches to his players everyday in practice. And it was defense that helped the Tigers take overfirst place in District 7-5A Friday night with a 57-42 victory over South Lafourche in the Tiger gym.

Hahnville, the 11th ranked team in the state, improved to 15-3 overall and 5- 0 in District 7-5A. South Lafourche, the four-time defending districtchampions, fell to 13-10 overall and 4-1 in district.

“We expected this one to be tough,” Gauthier said. “The score was indicativeof how the game was played. We’re not an offensive team, we are adefensive team. We tell the kids defense wins championships and makesthings happen. The kids are used to what we want on the defensive end. Theybelieve they can win by playing defense.”Hahnville held South Lafourche to 37 percent from the field in taking a 25-20 lead into halftime. The Tigers extended the lead to 33-22 on two free throwsby Mark Young with 4:05 left in the third quarter.

South Lafourche came back with a 10-0 run to pull to within one with 1:05 left in the quarter. Jon Shaw started the run with two free throws with 3:47left. Two possessions later, Chris Bruse scored off a steal by Shaw. After a3-pointer from the right side by Colby O’Quin, Michael Bourda grabbed a steal and took it in to make it 33-32.

Hahnville came back with a free throw by Dawan Landry on the ensuing possession. Corey Woods came up with a steal on the Tarpons’ nextpossession with Carl Raymond driving the baseline for a layup to give the Tigers a 36-32 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

Hahnville extended the run to 11-0 by scoring the first eight points of the fourth quarter. Harold Comminie hit a jumper from the right wing on theTigers’ first possession of the quarter and Landry followed by taking a steal by Woods in. A put back by Aaron Alexander made it 42-32 with 6:26 left.Following a South Lafourche timeout, Nick Cannon grabbed a steal, tossed to Comminie who found Alexander driving in to build the lead to 12. Brusescored off an inbounds pass from O’Quin to break the streak at the 4:50 mark but the Tigers came back with a 10-2 run to take an 18-point lead.

A drive by Woods started the run and Alexander followed a possession later by taking a pass from Landry in. Landry then bounced a pass to Comminiedriving the left baseline. Drives by Landry and Comminie made it 54-36 with2:13 left. A dunk by Cannon off a pass from Comminie with 50 secondsremaining put the exclamation point on the victory.

Comminie led all scorers with 24 points. Landry contributed nine points andAlexander eight for the Tigers.

Bruse paced South Lafourche with 19 points. Shaw finished with six points. Micah Stewart started an early 9-0 run by Hahnville by converting a three- point play off a steal by Carl Raymond. Comminie followed with a jumper anda drive to make it 11-5 with 1:13 left in the first quarter. Justin LeBlanc cutthe deficit to three at the end of the quarter with a 3-pointer from the right wing.

The Tarpons tied the game at 12 on a three-point play by Bruse early in the second quarter. The game would be tied twice more before Hahnville took thelead for good on a free throw by Raymond.

Raymond then tipped in a shot and Comminie hit a jumper to make it 21-16. Apass from Cannon to Mark Temple and a drive by Comminie off a steal helped the Tigers take a 25-20 halftime lead.

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