NATCHITOCHES — The  Minden Crimson Tide and Lady Tider basketball teams both took losses Tuesday in the City of Lights Tournament in Natchitcohes.

The Tide lost 50-49 to Natchitoches-Central, while the Lady Tiders fell 78-65 to St. James.

The Crimson Tide were beaten as Natchitoches-Central hit  one of two free throws with three second left.

“We had scored with 10 seconds left to take the lead, but a jump ball was called and the bucket was disallowed,” Minden head coach Alan Shaw said. “Then we blocked a shot with three seconds left and they called a foul. After the free throw, we had a 25-footer by D.J. Wallace bounce off the rim at the buzzer.”

Despite the loss, Shaw was pleased with his team.

“We played hard and with great effort,” he said. “We played tremendous defense, both teams played really well and did great jobs on defense. We struggled scoring a little bit, but we still had a chance to win. We missed six free throws in the fourth quarter and that was important down the stretch and it came back to haunt us at the end.”

DeMonde Harris led Minden with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Jay Beavers scored 14 points and A.J. Shine added 11.

“It was another great effort, but playing Natchitoches-Central at home is tough,” Shaw said. “They are a very good basketball team. So it was a tough loss, but one we can bounce back from. We were the only 4A team to make it this far, every one else is 5A, so I think that says a little something about our ball club.”

The Lady Tiders fell behind early, and trailed for most of their game with St. James, but played a strong second half before losing 78-65.

“We were behind 43-26 at halftime, and had trailed for most of the half,” Lady Tider head coach Jacob Brown said.

“We were down by 20 points most of the time. We had a chance to cut the lead to 12 or 13 before the half, which would have been good considering where we were, but St. James pushed the lead back to 21 at the half.”

But the Lady Tiders regrouped in the locker room and came out in the third quarter, playing much better.

“I was pleased that our girls didn’t give up in the second half. Brown said. “We out-scored them 42-31 after halftime. I was real impressed with the play of Darnesha Wright she played really hard. We still have some phases that we have to get better at, but I feel once we get everything together, we’ll be fine and have a great chance to be a real solid team.

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