By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

It’s a trip very familiar to the Reserve Christian Eagles. But its one that never gets old.

The two-time defending state champion Eagles are on their back to Lafayette for the 2008 Boys Top 28 tournament, having advanced to the Class C state semifinals by virtue of its 81-50 win at No. 23 seeded Dubach in a quarterfinal game on Friday night.

Reserve Christian (37-9) will face No. 3 seed Pleasant Hill today at noon at the Cajundome.

“I’m very proud of my team, and the identity that they’ve created for themselves this year,” said Reserve Coach Timmy Byrd.

That identity manifested itself for all to see on Friday. As it had in the first two rounds of postseason play, Reserve got out to a big first quarter lead. This time, the Eagles led 26-11 after the first quarter, and 42-22 at halftime.

Dubach was never able to answer. Reserve finished Dubach off in the third quarter, extending its lead to 62-32.

Eddren McCain led Reserve with 20 points. Cedric Jenkins added 18, including four 3-pointers. Lucas Martin scored 15, and Chris Roussell scored 10.

Charles Ellis led Dubach (11-19, 4-6) with 26 points.

Byrd was quite familiar with Dubach, which handed the Eagles a rare postseason defeat in the 2001 state semifinals.

His team wasn’t about to let it happen again.

“Dubach’s got a pretty good team, with a lot of real athletic underclassmen,” said Byrd. “We respected them. They’ve played very well of late.”

Indeed, Dubach had already upset two of the top 10 teams in Class C to reach the quarterfinal round, beating No. 10 Hackberry, 51-49, then No. 7 Sicily Island, 61-60 in overtime.

Reserve didn’t want to be the third favored team to drop a close game, and did everything it could to make sure that the decision wasn’t close at all.

A big part of that was Martin. An 8th grade forward playing beyond his years, Martin provided a big spark underneath the basket, scoring 11 of his points and collecting eight rebounds in the first half.

“He played really hard for us. He was aggressive and he went to the goal,” said Byrd.

Likewise, McCain yet again was a big catalyst for Reserve.

“They had no answer to guard Eddren,” said Byrd.