Matt Vines

COUSHATTA – Call them playoff veterans.

The Red River boys basketball team has used two third-quarter surges to dispatch of its first two playoff opponents, and now the No. 13 Bulldogs will catch a Madison team it’s already beaten in the Division III Non-Select quarterfinals.

The road game in Tallulah tips Friday at 6:30 p.m.

Red River (21-14) topped No. 4 seed Madison (23-7) in late December by the score of 49-47 in the Caldwell Parish Tournament.

“The preparation is as hard as it was the first time because I don’t want to overlook anything,” said Red River coach Dadrian Harris about prepping for a team he played in the regular season. “This Red River team that played Madison back in December is not even close to the level we have reached now.

“We were handling them fairly well without three of our starters for the first half of that game. We led by 12 points at halftime because of the leadership of Malique Smith and Josiah Jones.”

Red River will be at full strength – and playing full tilt – come Friday.

The three starters that missed the first half – Jayden Wells, Warren Bowman, and Jomello McDonald – blend nicely into a deep roster that Harris says is extremely unselfish.

“Guys like Collin Stafford, Demarche Newton, Jamarion Davis and Chris Gay have grown tremendously, so I’m liking the odds that we have,” Harris said. “We’re not taking preparation lightly. We will work hard and approach this game just as we do every game.”

If the 2024 playoffs are any indication, Red River’s playoff approach is spot on.

The Bulldogs reached the quarterfinals by coasting to a 67-49 win at No. 4 Vinton after handling No. 20 DeQuincy, 66-50, in the first round.

Madison makes the fourth top-10 seed that Red River has faced in the playoffs the past two seasons. Red River dispatched of No. 9 Sterlington as a No. 24 seed and fell at the end of the game to No. 8 Ville Platte in the second round of the 2023 playoffs.

Add No. 4 Vinton to the mix, and Red River is 2-1 against top-10 seeds as a double-digit seed.

“This is the exact same team, other than the addition of a couple of freshmen, that upset Sterlington and lost a heartbreaker to Ville Platte last year,” Harris said. “They know what pressure is and what it feels like.

“We started preparing for this moment immediately after that loss to Ville Platte last year. We are planning to take advantage of this opportunity by grinding like there’s no tomorrow every single day.”

Madison has played two close games in its playoff wins. The Jaguars avoided a first-round scare with a 54-48 win against No. 28 Amite and a 57-52 win against No. 21 Port Allen.

Red River is seeking its first Top 28 appearance since 2020, but the Bulldogs have made the state tournament a familiar locale.

Harris was an assistant coach on two of Keith Johnson’s eight Top 28 trips, which included five championship game appearances.

Two of those state title games came against Madison, with Madison taking the crown in overtime in 2006 and then-Coushatta High topping then-McCall High in 1999 for Johnson’s only state title.