Unsustainable

MAMOU -- The Mamou Demons could not sustain their first half effort, as they let the Marksville Tigers pull away in the second half in a 74-42 loss Monday night.
With the loss, Mamou falls to 2-7 on the season. The Demons were scheduled to play a full slate of games this week, taking on Jena on Tuesday, Buckeye on Thursday and Pineville on Friday, all on the road.
Marksville notched the first points of the game with two made free throws. Mamou answered on a basket with 5:45 remaining in the quarter.
The Tigers knocked down two buckets in response, including a three-pointer, to extend the lead to five points. From that point on, the teams took turns gathering points until the quarter came to a close with Marksville leading by three, 12-9.
For the first 2:25 seconds of the second quarter, the pace picked up to a feverish pace. The teams continued the back-and-forth scoring, with the only difference being a missed free throw from the Demons.
At the 5:35 mark, Marksville’s lead had only grown by one, 20-16.
However, the Tigers slowly made their way to pull away from Mamou. With 1:50 to go in the half, Marksville knocked down a three-point shot to give the Tigers a 10 point advantage, 27-17. That same advantage remained the rest of the period as Marksville headed into the locker room with a 30-20 lead.
The first four minutes of the third quarter did not change much, as the Demons stayed within striking distance of the Tigers. In fact a three-point basket with 4:09 to go in the period cut the Marksville lead down to eight, 39-31.
After that bucket, the Tigers went on a six point run to extend their lead to 14 points. Mamou once again cut into the Marksville advantage, bringing the separation back down to 11 over the next 1:08.
Undeterred, the Tigers answered with an 8-1 run over the final 1:25 of the period to take a 53-35 lead into the fourth quarter of play.
From that point on, it was all Marksville. The Tigers opened the final period on a 9-0 run to put the game out of reach. Despite the big gap in the score, the Demons continued to play full speed and managed to knock down a bucket or two to show they still had life.
As the quarter wound down, the two teams emptied their benches, giving the younger players some time on the floor.