LOOK OUT BEHIND—Hammond’s Oliverez Louis (5) has his shot knocked down from behind by St. Paul’s Tommy Bennett during Tueday’s 7-5A clash in Hammond. Louis’ 20 points trumped Bennet’s 19 and teh Tors won the biggest stat as well 73-58.

There are no off nights in District 7-5A, and other than perhaps Fontainebleau, there are no easy marks. So nearly every game is an exhausting test of will and perseverance.

So it was for district front-runners Hammond and Ponchatoula Tuesday night, but once again both teams passed the test to maintain their respective grips on shares of the district lead.

At Hammond, the Tors locked up with a desperate St. Paul's team in a game that devolved into a foul-plagued hack-fest that had both teams dealing with foul trouble. And the Tors are better suited for a war of attrition.

Oliverez Louis connected for a team-high 20 points and the Tors' superior depth came to the forefront once again in a 73-58 victory over the Wolves.

"We fouled a lot and that kept them in the game," said Tors coach Kilavorus Thompson. "We had some guys who were in foul trouble, but we had some guys who can come in off the bench and fill their shoes and keep the game at the same tempo."

Wolves coach Mike Toups also had his best players in foul trouble, but didn't have the same caliber of reinforcements to beckon.

"I don't think the officiating was a factor; they just beat us," said Toups. "Hammond is much, much deeper than us. They've got more guys who are ready to play in these varsity games. I thought they played really well."

Meanwhile, Ponchatoula was facing a Covington team that is second-to-last in district but knocked the Greenies off in Ponchatoula earlier this season. And sure enough, the Lions gave the front-running Greenies fits for three periods before the Wave pulled away late to take a 76-65 victory.

"That's been a recurring pattern for us," said Wave assistant coach John Derenbecker. "I think they're a dangerous team. I know some teams have handled them more readily than we have, but they present some bad matchups for us. They're extremely quick and aggressive."

Still, the Wave (19-11, 7-2) was able to pull off the road victory and remain tied with Hammond (18-8, 7-2) and Mandeville (22-6, 7-2) for the district lead. And looming next is a road date Thursday at Mandeville, a matchup that was moved up a night because of Mandeville's Mardi Gras parade on Friday night.

Mandeville kept its grip with an 80-76 victory over Slidell, while Northshore - Hammond's opponent on Friday - toppled Fontainebleau 54-53.

On the girls' side, Ponchatoula (28-5, 11-0) cruised on, dominating the final three periods to rout Covington 61-45. But Mandeville (21-3, 10-1) and Hammond (17-8, 7-3) are still nipping at the Lady Wave's heels. The Lady Skippers set the stage for a key district rematch on Thursday with Ponchatoula with a 54-37 rout of Slidell.

Hammond, meanwhile, struggled for a while with winless St. Scholastica before pulling away in the second half for a 68-45 victory.

“We didn't do what we had to do to put them away,” said Hammond Coach Tommy Morrison. “We didn't rebound well, we didn't make layups and we missed free throws. Anytime you do that you can keep anybody in the game no matter how good they are or what their record is.”

BOYS GAMES

Hammond 73, St. Paul's 58

Hammond led by two after the first period and by six (35-29) at halftime. At that point in the game, each team had four players with two personals and one with three.

The Wolves, however, hung tough, closing the gap to 39-38 midway through the period on a three-point play by Tommy Bennett, who scored 13 of his 19 markers in the second half to help keep St. Paul's in it.

But the Tors responded with a 12-5 run over the final 4:10 of the third period to run the lead back out to 51-43. Louis was the catalyst, hitting two big triples and a follow tip-in to run Hammond's lead to 10 points before Bennett got the final bucket of the period to make it an eight-point game.

Hammond would keep the Wolves at bay the rest of the night, not allowing them to get any closer than a six-point gap on three different occasions. Louis had 10 of his 20 markers in the third period and 14 total points in the second half.

"We've been stressing to him passing the ball early, getting the ball out of his hands and then once the ball is rotated around it will open up some opportunities for him," Thompson said of Louis. "If he'll be patient the game will come to him and he doesn't have to rush it and make it all happen at once. He had a great game tonight."

John Burris and Mike Henry chipped in 10 points each for Hammond. Justin Rake scored a game-high 21 points for the Wolves in addition to Bennett's 19.

-Reported by John Lenz

Ponchatoula 76, Covington 65

COVINGTON-Covington (8-16, 3-6) led by two points after one period, but the Greenies came back to forge a 29-29 halftime tie, then took a two-point lead into the final eight minutes.

But the fourth quarter belonged to the Wave, which answered the Lions' frenetic pace with some defensive thievery and the inside power of 6-5 Matt Derenbecker, who scored a game-high 32 points. Ponchatoula out-scored the hosts 28-19 in the fourth quarter to win going away.

"We got out in our transition game and got some points off of our defense, then we started pounding it inside when we didn't," coach Derenbecker said.

Coty McCalope added 18 points, Byron Hart had eight and Rob Derenbecker and John Brown six apiece for the Wave. Covington was led by Joel Bailey with 15, Anthony Marigny and Paul Fontenot each had 12 and Philip Bickham 11.

GIRLS GAMES

Hammond 68, St. Scholastica 45

Hammond entered the game trying to keep pace with district leading Ponchatoula and stay close on the heels of Mandeville. The Tors did not play their best game in the first half, but turned it on in the second half to win.

St. Scholastica opened the game up 5-0 in the first minute. The Lady Tors would come back from there to tie it at 10 with 2:30 left in the quarter on a layup by Brooke Lanier, then finished the first quarter on a 7-1 run to lead 15-1 after one.

Both teams continued to play sloppy in the second quarter as Hammond built a 28-21 lead with 2:00 remaining, but the Doves came back to trail 32-31 at halftime.

Hammond started to pull away in the third quarter as the Tors outscored SSA 18-10 to lead 50-40 after three. The Lady Tors then dominated the fourth quarter 18-5.

Jasmine Cyprian led Hammond with 19 points, Julia Jackson scored 15 and Christy Pinestraw 14 and Sara Perrilloux added 10. SSA was led by Paige Long with 17 points and Kayleigh Chiasson added 11.

“We have a big game Friday night against Northshore. They're fighting for a playoff spot, and we'll have to play better to beat them. Hopefully Jasmine Manuel will be healthy and ready to play on Friday with her ankle injury,” said Morrison.

-Reported by Jacob Rester

Ponchatoula 61, Covington 45

COVINGTON-The host Lady Lions (8-16, 3-7) actually led by one (9-8) after the first period. But then the Lady Wave took off behind its post players, outscoring Covington 18-11 in the second period to lead 26-20, then dominating the third (21-11) and fourth quarters (24-14) to pull away and win easily.

Megan Berner led Ponchatoula with a game-high 23 points and Antoinette Pea added 10. Duris topped Covington with 22 points.