Covington’s Fighting Lions turned in a superlative effort Friday night before falling to the taller Scotlandville Hornets 89-83 in the quarterfinals on the road.

Scotlandville (32-5), the No. 2 seed, road the strong back of six-foot-six inch senior forward J.J. Thomas, who dropped in 34 points to propel the Hornets to victory against the never quit Lions.

Covington senior Jordan Bedford, who wears jersey No. 23, put on a Michael Jordan type performance, pumping in a game-high 37 points, including 14 points in the first quarter helping spark his Lions to a 31-22 advantage. Fellow senior Phillip Bickham, the other part of the Lions’ productive scoring duo, registered a 27-point effort collecting 11 points in the opening stanza. Bedford and Bickham came out firing as they both drained two 3-pointers in the Lions’ electric first quarter in a packed house filled with Hornets fans along with a large boisterous contingent from Covington High.

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CHS (25-10), the No. 23 seed, did a good job getting Bedford and Bickham into the flow of the game early riding the shoulders of the two 1,000 point career scorers, Phillip Bickham knocked down a 3-ball at the buzzer to close out the first quarter to give the Lions their nine-point advantage.

Bedford, who fell to his knees at the end of the game, was congratulated by the majority of the Scotlandville players under the basket in a show of good sportsmanship wanting to recognize his tremendous effort.

“Now that my career is over, I felt I had an awesome career, even though I wanted a state championship really bad. Making it to the quarterfinals was special, but when the clock was expiring I felt really bad. Now that it’s over, life goes on. I’ve got to suck it up and go on from here,” Bedford said.

“We couldn’t stop their big guy (Thomas). Coming into the playoffs (No. 23 seed) we felt we were underestimated by the entire state so we wanted to come out and prove to everybody that we could win,” Bedford added.

Covington third-year coach Mike Smith, while he was congratulating Scotlandville players, was approached by a Hornets’ fan who said coach you can be proud of your boys because they played a strong game.

Smith thanked her and then talked about how proud he was of his team’s gutsy effort on the road against a quality Scotlandville squad saying his team gave him everything they had.

“I’m really proud of this team. We can play an up tempo game when we need to and I think that’s what we needed to beat this team. A couple of times we got away from what we had to do. They are such a good team and when they got ahead of us we just couldn’t come back again,” Smith said.

Smith described Scotlandville as a well-conditioned team and a good shooting team.

“They did what they needed to do at the end to win,” Smith added.

Smith described Scotlandville’s Thomas as being a great player.

“There is no doubt about it. He’s very difficult to defend and it will take a top-notch player to do that. Our big guys are so young, Shaq Callahan is a sophomore and Terrance Singleton is a junior. They just don’t have enough experience. They are going to grow and get bigger. They just need a little more experience and they’ll be there. They can handle what we need,” Smith added.

Smith credited his seniors with doing a phenomenal job.

“They didn’t want this to end. They did a great job. They have achieved so much,” Smith remarked.

Scotlandville third-year coach Carlos Sample said it was a total team effort by his Hornets.

“I thank God for that win. I take my hat off to Covington. Their kids played an outstanding game. I hate for someone to lose a game like that. It was just an outstanding game. My kids hung in there, faced adversity and overcame it,” Sample said.

“It was a heck of a game for the crowd. That’s all I can say,” Sample added.

Sample praised the play of his big man, Thomas.

“He did an outstanding job. He’s a leader. If he goes, we go,” added the third-year coach.

Scotlandville got some better looks in the second quarter doing a more consistent job of establishing Thomas inside and outscored Covington 22-15 to cut it to a 46-44 contest at the half.

Only five CHS players scored with junior point guard Jay Bickham finishing with 10 points, while Shaq Callahan added five points and Lance Brown chipped in with four to round out the Lions’ scoring.

Scotlandville’s sophomore guard Deshawn Washington chipped in with 19 points including 13 points in the second half followed by junior guard Levi Wright with 17, 10 coming in the third and fourth quarters for the Hornets.

Bedford and Bickham cooled off a bit in the third period with five and four points respectively as Scotlandville outscored CHS 21-20, but still trailed 66-65 entering the final quarter.

Scotlandville hit 8-of-15 free throws in the fourth period, which helped keep Covington at bay despite the Lions’ ball hawking effort to keep pace, refusing to give in down the stretch.

Thomas and Washington came up big in the final quarter with eight points each, while Wright tallied seven for the Hornets.

Scotlandville’s Thomas put the Hornets up 80-76 on a lay up with 2:31 remaining. CHS’ Phillip Bickham split a pair of free throws to make it 80-77 with 2:25 to go.

Following a Scotlandville turnover, Bickham hit a basket and was fouled. He converted the charity toss to tie things at 80-80 with 1:54 on the clock.

Wright put the Hornets back on top with a basket and added a free throw after being fouled on the play to regain the lead at 83-80 with just 1:03 left.

Scotlandville’s Thomas had to depart due to having blood on his jersey. He quickly donned a different jersey, No. 20, and reentered the lineup. With 32.3 seconds to go, he freed himself up inside the Lions’ defense and powered down a two-handed dunk to push the lead to five at 85-80. He was fouled and converted the charity toss for a six-point margin.

CHS’ Phillip Bickham rose up for a trey and was fouled in the act of shooting. He calmly sank all three to keep the Lions in the hunt cutting the margin to 86-83 making it a one possession game with only 21.8 seconds left.

CHS called a time out after Bickham’s free throws.

Bickham fighting back his emotions at the game’s conclusion talked about his high school career being over.

“The loss hurts. I feel bad to have the season end this way. I feel like I could have done a little more to have my team win since I’m a senior to carry my team to victory, but it didn’t go our way,” Phillip Bickham said.

“A lot of teams underestimated us. Sometimes things go your way and sometimes they don’t. Their big man (Thomas) was one of the best big men I have seen,” Bickham added.

With only 12.1 seconds to go, following Phillip Bickham’s clutch three free throws, Covington had nothing left to do, but commit a foul to stop Scotlandville from running out the clock. Travis Lee, who finished with six-points missed the first freebie, but connected on the second as the ball hit the rim, bounced up and came back down with a hometown drop to push the lead back to four at 87-83. The Lions missed a desperation shot with time winding down and Scotlandville’s Washington grabbed the key rebound being fouled with just 4.9 tricks left. He sank both free throws to close out the hard-fought game at 89-83 sending the Hornets to the semifinals to the delight of the large home crowd. Scotlandville will square off with the No. 6 seed Jesuit Blue Jays, who edged St. Thomas More 57-54 to advance. This year’s Boys’ Top 28 Tournament takes place March 9-13 at the Lafayette Cajundome.