Four parish players make All-District 5-5A basketball team

The high-school basketball season ended in the parish much sooner than District 5-5A fans have grown accustom to seeing.

All three of the district's teams in St. Amant, East Ascension and Dutchtown fell short of making the playoffs. However, the great individual performances by the teams' players did not go unrecognized.

Four parish players earned themselves spots on the All-District 5-5A basketball team.

St. Amant was the only team to have two selections. After all, the Gators did finish the year with the best record of the three teams.

St. Amant almost completely flipped their record from last year. With such a young roster, the Gators went just 11-20 and 0-10 in the district during head coach Travis Uzee's first season.

But this year, St. Amant went 19-12 and 6-4 in District 5-5A. Unfortunately, two tough back-to-back losses to East Ascension and Dutchtown at the end of the year prevented them from making the playoff field.

Texas State signee Courtney Julien was named District MVP for his tremendous play throughout the year. Joining Julien on the all-district squad was fellow-senior Nick Griffin.

East Ascension was forced to rebuild this season after they lost all five starters from last year's state quarterfinal team.

Four starters graduated and returning all-district player Deandre Jones went down with an ACL tear early in the season.

First-year head coach Barry Whittington Jr., rallied his young squad the best he could. The Spartans finished the year playing some of the best basketball of anyone in the district as they won four of their final five games.

They finished the season at 13-17 overall and 5-5 in the district.

Fittingly, their one all-district selection was the lone senior in their starting rotation, Josh Andrews.

Dutchtown had the toughest year of the district teams. Like East Ascension, they were forced to replace all five starters from a state quarterfinal team.

Their inexperience and lack of depth led to many struggles throughout the year.

Their one all-district selection was senior Cameron Burke.

Burke and the Griffins finished the season 5-24 overall and 3-7 in the district, but they were able to end on a high note as they beat district rival St. Amant in the regular-season finale.