Bossier High and Plain Dealing bid for berths in championship games today in the Top 28 boys’ state basketball tournament at Lafayette’s Cajundome.

Bossier High (37-1) plays Washington-Marion (24-4) at 8 tonight in a Class 4A semifinal. The Bearkats are seeded No. 2 and the Chargin’ Indians are seeded No. 3.

The winner of their game will play the winner of a game between No. 1 seed Peabody Magnet (39-0) of Alexanderia and No. 4 seed Glen Oaks in the 8 p.m. championship game Saturday.

Plain Dealing (26-5), the No. 5 seed in Class A, plays No. 1 seed Christian Life (Baton Rouge) at 2 p.m. today. Christian Life, 34-5, is the only team that has defeated Bossier High this season.

The last Caddo Parish survivor was eliminated Wednesday when Riverside Academy defeated Evangel Christian Academy 75-46 in a Class 2A semifinal game.

In other Wednesday games, the top two seeds in Class C moved into the championship game when No. 1 Pleasant Hill eliminated Saline 65-51 and No. 2 Athens beat Spearsville 75-53 in semifinal games.

Pleasant Hill plays Athens at noon Saturday.

The Pleasant Hill coach is Dale Skinner, who is also the girls’ coach and the principal. His girls reached the Ladies Top 28 semifinals at Hammond last week, losing to champion Plainview (Glenmora) 51-50.

The last time one of his boys’ teams reached the state finals was in 1977, when a DeRidder team led by Mike Sanders carried a 41-0 record into the championship game, tying Bossier High’s record for victories in the top class since the Louisiana High School Athletic Assn. divided schools into classifications in 1937-38, but fell to Rummel, 52-48.

A Bossier High team coached by John McConathy set the record with a 41-4 record in 1959-60, winning the Class 3A (then the top class) state title.

As a player, Skinner was a member of Belmont High teams that won Class C state titles in 1956 and 1957. The 1957 team, which beat Meaux 62-59 in the finals, had a 56-1 record, with the only loss being to McConathy’s Bossier High Bearkats in the Fair Park tournament.

Bossier High, which reached the 4A finals last year, didn’t play enough games this season to have a shot at the 41-win record, but the Bearkats will finish the season with the best record in school history regardless of what happens in the Top 28.

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