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JONESVILLE, La. — The District 2-1A and No. 13 seed champion Block High School Bears held on for a 62-57 victory over a feisty No. 20 seed Pickering High School Red Devils team last Friday night in the Bi-District Round of the 2025 LHSAA Select Division IV Playoffs.

Block got off a really good start and led Pickering 26-15 after one quarter of play. But a combination of foul trouble and the sharp shooting of the Red Devils’ duo of Ladarius Prizeteron and A.J. Berry allowed them to get back in the game.

“They were the scoring machine that night. Ladarius is a good shooter. They’re both good shooters. They only missed four shots,” Bears head coach Ledois Norman said. “They’re both good 3-point shooters. They kept them in the game. They were a threat to us.”

Prizerton led Pickering (11-16) with a game-high 31 points and Berry finished with 24 points. But the rest of the Red Devils only scored a total of two points.

The Bears held a 36-28 going into halftime, but point guard Marquese Bullitts fouled out late in the third quarter and that’s when the Red Devils made their run.

“We got in foul trouble late in the third quarter. (Bullitts) had seven points. That kind of hurt us right there,” Norman said. “He’s our playmaker. We had a ton of turnovers after that that allowed them to get back in the game.”

Pickering ended up outscoring Block 17-6 in the third quarter for a stunning 45-42 advantage. But just when it appeared that the visitors had momentum on their side, the home team were able to take it away from them thanks to what the Bears went to defensively earlier in the game.

“We managed to force some turnovers. We went back to our full-court press and we were able to score. Because of our foul trouble, we went from our full-court press to our half-court press,” Norman said. “That didn’t work, so we went back to our full-court press.”

Two other factors in Block’s comeback win were the play of senior Kristian O’Steen and a change of position that Norman made in the fourth quarter.

“We changed his position from shooting guard to down in the post. He got a couple of three-point plays that got us back in the lead,” Norman said.

Not only that, but when senior Davante Glasper fouled out, Norman brought in McCai Maxon off the bench and he made some key shots in the post for the Bears.

“He did good. He’s my sixth man. He did an awesome job. He made some critical goals for us. He’s been out for a few games because of an injury, so he’s just coming back. He did a great job getting the ball down low and scoring for us,” Norman said.

O’Steen led Block with 25 points and Maxon poured in 10 points. The Bears ended up outscoring Pickering 20-12 in the fourth quarter.

With the win, the Bears improved to 17-8 overall. They traveled to Lake Charles, La. to take on the Hamilton Christian School Warriors in the Regional Round on Monday at 7 p.m. Hamilton Christian is the No. 4 seed and earned a bye through the Bi-District Round as well as home game in the Regional Round.