Stormed over

PRAIRIE RHONDE -- The Ville Platte High Bulldogs felt the full force of the storm that is the North Central Hurricanes as they fell hard to the Class 1A powerhouse 60-34 in the Northwest Holiday Classic Monday night.
With the loss, Ville Platte drops to 9-5 on the season. The Bulldogs are scheduled to play Avoyelles Public Charter on January 8.
The first 4:43 of Monday night’s contest did not go very well for Ville Platte. During that span, North Central utilized a tough trapping defense and some take-it-to-the-rim offense to secure an 8-0 lead.
Tauj Roy stopped the Bulldog bleeding temporarily when he knocked down a three-point basket at the 3:54 mark of opening period. The Hurricanes responded with two more quick baskets to stretch their lead to nine points.
Ville Platte got back into the game over the last minute of the period, when Ernest Roberts and Sage Papillion hit on back-to-back baskets. By the time the horn sounded to end the quarter, the Bulldogs found themselves down by five, 12-7.
The start to the second quarter showed a ton of similarity to the start of the first quarter with North Central blasting out on a 7-2 run. Roberts and Tye’wuan Byers put Ville Platte back to within five points with two successive buckets, with Byers’ basket being of the three-point variety.
The Hurricanes answered back with a three-pointer of their own and a two-point bucket to move back to a ten point lead, 24-14. The Bulldogs finished out the half on a 4-0 run to only trail by six as the teams made their way to the locker room.
The six point North Central advantage became an 11 point advantage very quickly in the opening part of the third quarter. The Hurricanes continued keeping Ville Platte at bay as they hit the 2:42 mark with a 14 point edge.
The final minutes of the third quarter belonged to North Central, as the Hurricanes stole and jammed their way to a 6-0 run. As the time expired in the third quarter, the Bulldogs found themselves down by 20 points, 45-25.
With only the final period left to play, Ville Platte knew they needed to ramp up the intensity and for the first 2:50 they did just that. By the time the clock had hit the 5:10 mark, the Hurricane lead had been cut down to 11.
However, North Central was not going to let the Bulldogs get any closer. The Hurricanes closed out the contest on a 9-4 run.
Byers collected 10 points on the night to lead the Bulldogs in scoring.