HOUMA – The dunk just didn’t go down for the Neville Tigers on Friday night.

Jim Cenac/ Houma Courier Correspondent

Ellender Memorial’s Ivan Thompson (30) drives the lane on Neville’s Keenan Gaskin during the second quarter of Friday;’s bi-district playoff game in Houma.

After making a furious comeback in the fourth quarter, Neville had a chance to tie its Class 4A first-round boys basketball playoff game against Ellender with four minutes left, but Monte Browhow’s dunk attempt proved too strong and despite nearly going through, the ball popped out.

The Patriots grabbed the rebound, pushed the ball up court, and Jamal Nixon scored and was fouled.

It ended up being a five-point swing and Ellender went on for an 86-69 victory.

“He has not dunked all year,” Neville coach Phillip Craig said. “That ties it and the momentum is really in our favor, but instead, they go down and get a 3-point play to go up five. That’s the nature of this game.”

Before the missed dunk, the No. 26 Tigers (14-17) outscored the No. 7 Patriots 17-6 to close the gap to 64-62.

After the missed dunk, Ellender (27-9) outscored Neville 22-7 the rest of the way.

“I think it (the missed dunk) kind of deflated them,” Ellender coach Scott Gauthreaux said. “They had a chance for an easy bucket to tie the game after you have been fighting back, but I think our conditioning and the style we play helped us out in the end.”

Ellender will host No. 10 Minden in the second round of the playoffs. Gauthreaux

said that game will likely by played at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Ellender (20-of-30 free throws) trailed 18-14 at the end of the first quarter after Neville’s Caderrian Banks hit an uncontested running 3-pointer at the buzzer.

Ellender’s leading scorer on the season Sterling Jones saw his first action at the 6:42 mark of the second quarter.

With his help and the help of a 9-0 run during the period, Ellender led 35-27 at halftime.

Gauthreaux said he held Jones out of the first quarter for disciplinary reasons.

“It was something we needed to do to take care of some things,” Gauthreaux said. “He came in and responded. He gave us the spark we needed.”

The Patriots led by as much as 14 points in the third quarter, and at its end, they led 58-45.

Neville began chipping away with 6:20 left and got the lead down to two points before the missed dunk.

“We haven’t done the little things right all year,” Craig said. “We didn’t have a very impressive record, and we had a lot of respect for what Ellender has done. We came in and played like we had nothing to lose. We just tried to throw everything at them.”

Neville (13-of-23 free throws) got a game-high 29 points from Artez Bynum, and 20 points from Keen Gachin.

Nixon led Ellender with 25 points, Jones had 23 points, David Stewart scored 15 points, and Trevon Lewis added 10 points.

“It looked like we came out and had a little bit of the jitters,” Gauthreaux said. “Once we settled down and started playing the way we are capable of playing, everything fell into place.”