EUNICE -- With the district championship basically out of reach, the Mamou Demons headed to Eunice with power points on their mind. A win over the Bobcats and the Demons would pick up some much needed help in improving on their No. 13 ranking before the playoffs begin a week from Friday.
With that said, Mamou accomplished what they set out to do, as they turned a six point first quarter lead into an 83-68 victory.
Because of the big win, Mamou improved to 13-7 on the year and 9-3 in District 5-3A. The Demons will host Church Point tomorrow night with only two games remaining on their schedule.
At the jump, Mamou knocked the ball down, but, much to their surprise, it landed in the hands of a Eunice player. The result of the mishandled ball was a Bobcat score with only 10 seconds elapsed in the game.
The early basket did not discourage the Demons in the slightest, as they took the ball down and answered immediately with two points of their own. The two teams fought hard offensively resulting in multiple baskets scored.
With three minutes left in the first period, Mamou took control of the game going on a 10 point scoring streak. With that streak, the Demons took a 20-14 lead as the first quarter came to a close.
Starting the second quarter, the Mamou players knew that they must continue to be successful offensively in order to increase their lead. And, they did just that, breaking out on a 9-4 run in the first 2:45 of the period, despite the Bobcats scoring the first basket of the quarter.
The Demons were left unaffected by the efforts of the Bobcats to try and crawl back into the game. Mamou extended its lead to 35-19 over the next two minutes of play.
However, Eunice would counter with a 9-4 run of its own, which would result in an 11 point Mamou advantage, 39-28, as the two squads headed into the locker room.
After half-time the Demons decided to crank things up a bit, taking the court and scored the first five points of the third quarter. Mamou, now holding a comfortable 44-28 lead continued to dominate the Bobcats. Nevertheless, Eunice was not going down without a fight, as they closed the final 1:17 of the third quarter with seven straight points scored.
As the horn sounded to end the period, Mamou found itself up by 18 points, 63-45.
Eunice used the first four minutes of the fourth quarter to out produce the Demons on offense, 16-10, to cut the lead down to only 12 points. With only four minutes left to play, all of a sudden a fire seemed to have been lit beneath the feet of the Bobcats.
In the end, Mamou was able to hold on by kicking it into a higher gear on the offensive side of the floor and finish Eunice off with a final 21-7 push.
Tammrick Thomas finished with 27 points to lead the Demons.
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CALEB FORET