Slidell’s season came to a close Tuesday night with a 68-33-road loss in a packed gym to the top seeded St. Augustine Purple Knights in the regional round of the playoffs.

The 16th ranked Tigers finish at 24-10. St. Augustine (31-4) advances to the quarterfinals and heads over to face district foe No. 9 Brother Martin. The Crusaders edged Ponchatoula 66-63. St. Augustine is 4-0 against Brother Martin this season.

St. Augustine came out strong to start, scoring the first six points over the first minute and a half. Brennan Reynard, who tied Tevin Parker with a team-high 11 points, grabbed a loose ball and put Slidell on the board. That started a 6-1 run and it was 7-6 with 4:59 left.

Slidell’s Tevin Parker attempts to drive past St. Augustine’s Elridge Moore during Tuesday’s playoff game at St. Augustine. Also shown is the Purple Knights’ Javan Felix. (Staff Photo by Chris Kinkaid)

The Tigers had a chance to go ahead, but they missed two free throws, an area they struggled this game. Slidell connected on just 5-of-14 from the line.

St. Augustine’s Elridge Moore played a big part in the Purple Knights’ scoring. He scored nine of his 18 points in the opening period. Moore made it 9-6 with a bucket.

Moore talked about his start.

“I want to play every game like it’s the championship game, like every game’s my last,” Moore said. “So I’m going to go out and give it everything I have.”

Javan Felix, who posted a game-high 19 points, split free throws and it was 10-6 at the 3:34 mark.

Then Andrew Winston got going. He hit a 3-pointer from the right wing and then Moore scored and to make it 12-9.

On the next trip down, Winston got open and hit another trey from the top of the key, tying the game at 12-12 with 2:42 to go and it stayed that way through the first quarter.

Following Winston’s second bucket from behind the arc, Slidell struggled. The Tigers tallied just seven points and hit two field goals over the next 19:13 against a stifling Purple Knights’ defense that was forcing turnovers and missed shots. All of the points came from Parker and Reynard.

“Our game plan was to try and take No. 4 (Reynard) away from them and defend hard on No. 5 (Parker),” St. Augustine coach Clifford Barthé said. “We knew he could shoot the ball and we knew 4 was the head or the serpent so to speak. If we could take the head away, it would cause the rest of them to have problems and they did. They couldn’t get into their offense.”

He added that SHS made some shots early, but they stayed with their game plan and continued to play hard.

St. Augustine began the second period by scoring the first 11 points and led 23-12 at the 5:45 mark.

Reynard hit a 3-pointer, keeping Slidell in it at 23-15, but the Purple Knights scored six-of-seven to end the half and led 29-16 at the break.

St. Augustine came out in the second half and began to break the game open. On the opening possession, Sydie London collected an offensive rebound and followed a shot. After an SHS turnover, Brandon Lain got an offensive board and put the follow up in, giving his club a commanding 33-16 advantage.

Parker got inside for a bucket for two and it was 33-18. After that St. Augustine basically ended all doubt, scoring 11 straight to make it 44-18 with 1:40 remaining in the third.

It was 49-19 heading to the fourth. Slidell played hard throughout in a losing effort 68-33.

Despite the loss, Tigers’ coach Dale Chimento said the team never quit.

“The boys played hard all season and improved through out the year,” Chimento said. “We just ran in to a very great basketball team in the St. Augustine Purple Knights, who may very well win the state championship.”