By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

RESERVE — Sheer domination.

On Monday, Two-time defending Class 2A champion Riverside continued its rampage through the state of Louisiana this season, tackling visiting Newman 107-55 in a regional round playoff matchup that was never close.

Riverside advances to the state quarterfinals, ,where it will face the winner of the Tuesday night game between No. 8 Runnels and No. 9 Hannan, contested after press time. Riverside would host in the event of a Runnels win, but would travel were Hannan to prevail.

Malik Crowfield scored 31 points and Herb McGee 24 to pace the explosive Rebels, who have topped 100 points in five of their last seven games and are still undefeated within the state — all six of the team’s losses have come in national competition. RA hit 15 3-pointers in the game.

Peter Drennan led Newman (17-15) with 23 points.

It was Riverside’s third win over Newman this season.

Riverside (24-6) has shown a knack for completely shutting teams down in the fourth quarter, but on Monday the Rebels wasted no time getting into lockdown mode. A furious full-court press left the Greenies frazzled, and Newman did not score for the first 6:45 of the game.

“We wanted to press them to wear them out,” Crowfield said. “It’s a playoff game, and we were out to explode from the jump. You have to win.”

Conversely, the Rebels wasted no time getting their top scorers going. Jordan Andrews scored moments after the opening tip. McGee, Crowfield and Jared Butler nailed back-to-back-to-back unanswered 3s, and after a Butler free throw, Crowfield canned another to put RA ahead 17-0.

“We set out to keep Newman from getting into their halfcourt offense,” Byrd said. “They’re well-coached and they’ve got good shooters, and if we’d let them, they’d be patient in those sets.”

Newman finally got on the board, but RA kept its momentum surge going after an Andrews steal and one-handed jam. A McGee layup made it 21-4 to end the first.

It was more of the same to begin the second quarter. Crowfield was fouled shooting a 3 and made all three shots at the foul line. Von Julien sank a corner 3, then Crowfield scored again. Andrews and Julien socked two more 3s, and the rout was well past on at 35-6.

“Our chemistry is at another level right now,” Crowfield said. “The way we play with each other (makes Riverside special).”

Andrews and Julien each finished with 11 points as did Garland Robinson, and Butler finished with nine.