EUNICE - North Central fought off a determined Port Barre effort to defeat the Red Devils 80-55 in game four of the St. Landry Parish Basketball Tournament on Wednesday.

Errick Coleman was the top scorer for North Central (6-5) with 22 points. Isaac Dixon was one of three other Hurricanes in double figures with 16 points. Christopher Robinson had 13 points and Joseph Simien had 11.

Port Barre (1-10) was paced by Chaz Pickney with 16 points while Torrey Griffin added 14 for the Red Devils.
"We were sloppy tonight," North Central coach Butch Fontenot said. "We did play well in spots. Give Port Barre a lot of credit, they played hard."

Displaying a good deal of moxie in the game's opening two minutes, the Red Devils took a quick 8-2 lead as the Hurricanes seemed to open the contest out of sorts.

After gathering rebounds on both ends, forcing turnovers and fronting a sense of urgency that was missing in the opening minutes, North Central regained its composure and followed a familiar script in taking control of the contest.

Raining down long range jump shots, Coleman and Simien put the opportunistic Red Devils on their heels to take a 22-18 lead at the end of the first period.

The Hurricanes kept a six point cushion through much of the second, but did so from the paint this stanza as Nason Lamb, Simien and David Tanner deposited easy layups and putbacks to help North Central build a 35-29 half time advantage.

Port Barre emerged from the break determined but was unable to match North Central offensively. Coleman found the range on his 3-pointer and drained a trio late in the third as the Hurricanes pushed their lead into double digits.

Leading 58-36 primarily on the strength of Coleman's sharp shooting prowess, the Hurricanes continued to batter the outgunned Port Barre squad down the stretch.