Matt Vines

COUSHATTA – Tuesday was a night of the underdogs, at least in Red River’s pod of the Division III Non-Select brackets.

The No. 6 Bulldogs’ season ended with a 54-47 loss to No. 11 Green Oaks in the second round of the playoffs.

Red River, who routinely scores in the 70s or 80s and routed first-round opponent No. 27 Crowley by a score of 88-48, didn’t find the bottom of the bucket often Tuesday at home.

Only one team had beaten Red River in their house this season – Class 5A Natchitoches Central.

Red River ends the season 22-11 and won’t make their third straight trip to the Top 28.

This year’s seven-player senior class formed the core of the Bulldogs’ past two Top 28 appearances, including the 2024 championship game appearance. All three of those seasons eclipsed the 20-win mark.

It’s still another banner year for a program that hung another District 3-2A title with an unbeaten record.

And Red River wasn’t the only favorite to fall.

No. 3 Donaldsonville, the expected opponent for Red River in the quarterfinals, couldn’t escape No. 14 seed Rayville in a 64-55 loss.

Now Rayville and Green Oaks (15-14), two double-digit seeds that Red River beat in the regular season, will battle for the right to go to Lake Charles.

Red River knows what it’s like to deal blows to higher seeds – the No. 13 seed Bulldogs knocked off three top-eight teams away from home (two on the road and one on a neutral court in the semifinals) to reach the 2024 state title game.

The 2025 Bulldogs successfully defended their home court in the playoff’s first three rounds before falling in the semifinals to Marksville.

But a loss to Green Oaks, a team Red River had beaten by 10 points in late December and a bunch that needed overtime to dispose of Many in the playoff’s first round, will certainly sting for awhile.

It’s not the ending that seniors Malique Smith, Warren Bowman, Demarche Newton, Tylan Beavers, Collin Stafford, Cameron Jones or Jamarion Davis envisioned when they embarked on this playoff journey.

But Red River’s recent playoff success wouldn’t have been possible without this group either.