Barbe will look to continue its strong start to the District 3-5A basketball race when it visits Sulphur tonight, with the Tors looking for their first district win after a string of narrow losses.

The Bucs (12-5) have won three of their first four district games, with the lone loss coming to leader Lafayette, which is undefeated in district play. Sulphur (7-14, 0-4) has lost its four district games by a combined 30 points, including losses by four to Acadiana and three to Comeaux.

Tors coach Skip Carlin said his team is on the right track.

“We are improving each night out,” Carlin said. “We see improvement, we just can’t get over our third quarter woes.

“We just break down here and there. Other than that, we are doing good. We are improving with our offensive sets. We are having more guys step up scoring-wise. Our team defense has gotten a lot better too.”

Carlin said defense is Barbe’s strong suit.

“They may be the best man-to-man defensive team in the district,” he said. “I’ve watched Barbe a few times and they are really good off the ball sure.

“We are going to have execute. We have to have all guys running the play, we can’t just look for one guy. Barbe can D-up all five spots; we need all five guys ready to roll.”

In the girls game, Sulphur (16-5, 6-0) will look to remain perfect against the Bucs (8-12, 2-4). Sulphur won the first meeting 49-36 on Dec. 9. Barbe upset third-place New Iberia last week.

(Rick Hickman/American Press)

Rick Hickman