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Central Catholic's Tyler Smith attempts a layup during Tuesday's Division IV regional round contest between No. 2 Central Catholic and No. 15 Cedar Creek. Central Catholic won the game 87-40. (The Daily Review/Geoff Stoute)

CCHS whips Cedar Creek 87-40

Central Catholic rolled past Cedar Creek 87-40 in Division IV regional round action in Morgan City Tues-day.
The No. 2 seed Eagles never trailed, and the game was tied just once at 2 after two free-throws by Chandler Hay nearly a minute into the game.
From there, the Eagles went on a 19-9 run to close the quarter.
Central Catholic had ad-vantages in size, speed and athleticism against the No. 15 seed Cougars (11-22).
The Eagles’ lead continued to grow as Central Catholic led 45-22 at halftime and 68-32 after three periods of play.
Central Catholic’s largest lead of the night came with 3:58 remaining when Elijah Swan sank a three-pointer for an 83-33 advantage.
“We beat a pretty good team pretty badly,” Central Catholic Coach Ree Case said. “We played some teams that were not as good as that team and did not beat them like that.”
Central Catholic (21-9) now will continue postseason play as it hosts No. 10 Southern Lab in Division IV quarterfinal action Friday at 6 p.m. Southern Lab advanced after defeating No. 7 St. John 55-36 on the road Tuesday.
“The great thing is we worked hard all year, trying to get a high seed just so we’d have this game at home,” Case said of the quarterfinals. “That was our goal going (into the season was) to try to get in the top four, so we could have a home game in the quarterfinals. Like I told them, I said, ‘hey, can’t beat it. You got a game in the quarterfinals at home to go to the top 28. It doesn’t get (any) better than that.”
While Central Catholic wasn’t threatened at the time on the scoreboard, the Eagles did collect fouls quickly early on as Swan had two fouls before the end of the first quarter, and Cedar Creek was in the bonus at the line with 1:10 remaining in the opening quarter with the Eagles ahead 19-6.
However, Cedar Creek could not catch up.
“The one thing we said before the game started we do not want to foul them, and then they’re in the bonus in the first quarter,” Case said. “I think we were just trying to do too much, trying to steal the ball and just getting ourselves out of position and just not playing very good defense. I thought the second half, we played much better defense, and the game went from 20 points to the final score. I thought our defense was the difference in the second half.”
Hay led Cedar Creek with 12 points, while Landon Spillers had 11.
Swan led four Eagles in double figures with 19 points. Other Central Catholic scorers were Davidyione Bias, 17; D.J. Lewis, 16; Brooks Thomas, 10; Kye Morgel, nine; Taylor Blanchard, eight; Demondrick Blackburn, six; and Tyler Smith, two.
“We have some of this in our district with the Delhi’s and the Tensas’ and the Sicily Island’s but not the complete package like this bunch has,” Cedar Creek Coach Robert Mitcham said of the Eagles’ size, speed and athleticism. “We just didn’t have an answer for all five of them at the same time. They killed us on the offensive boards, their quickness, their shooting ability. They’ve got a complete team, and they’re going to make a run at it for sure. They really are.”

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