By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

RESERVE – His team may not have been as fresh as it could be, but Riverside Timmy Byrd nonetheless saw an improved product from his team in Tuesday night’s 59-55 defeat of Hahnville, something he credits to a change in approach this week.

Byrd, who said last week that he felt his team had “hit the wall” mentally, decided to try to wake his team up on Monday with one of its most physical practices of the season.

“We were trying to get the passion back,” said Byrd. “And it seemed to work on Tuesday. WE played with a lot of toughness.”

The Rebels’ Cedric Jenkins scored a game-high 25 points, 12 of those coming within a 16-0 third quarter run that put Riverside firmly in the driver’s seat.

“He was special in that third quarter,” said Byrd.

6-6 center Ricardo Gathers scored 19 for the Rebels.

“We were able to force it inside to him, and he finished for us,” said Byrd. “It was a very physical game, and I was pleased with how patient we were offensively.”

Warren Lebouef, Byron Gauthier and Derek Howard each scored 12 points to lead Hahnville.

Riverside led 29-26 at halftime, but Hahnville quickly scored four points to take a 1-point lead in the third quarter.

Then the Rebels went to work, scoring 18 of the next 21 points to carry a 49-33 lead into the fourth quarter.

But Hahnville (12-5) wasn’t done, and closed to within two, 57-55, on a 3-point play by Jauries Thomas with 1:19 left in the game.

“They started chipping away at it in the last four minutes,” said Byrd. “They hit some big threes, and we had a five possession stretch without scoring.”

But Riverside spread the floor and was able to burn a minute off of the clock before converting a layup with 15 seconds left to push the lead to four.

The Tigers had no answer.

Jenkins played well despite missing Monday’s practice due to illness – he still felt the effects of it Tuesday night.

But he may have received a lift from playing in front of a packed Rebel gym for only the third time this season.

“ The team was excited to play in front of their fans,” said Byrd.