NEDERLAND — Louisiana Christian School denied Darrell Jones a chance. So he turned to Nederland’s next option, calmly waiting at the right-hand corner.
Junior Cade Smith smoothly launched his shot just tenths of a second before the buzzer sounded, and his three-pointer swished through the net to give the Bulldogs a 61-60 victory Friday in the second of the three-day Nederland Bulldog Classic.
“I just practice on it every day and work on it every day,” said Smith, whose winning basket was his second three-ball of the game. “It’s what coach wants me to do, go out there and make shots. I tried to do my best with that tonight.”
Smith has been on a three-point shooting tear through two games in the Classic. He made three straight long-range shots for his only points in an overtime win over Barbers Hill on Thursday and finished with six points Friday.
Said Nederland coach Brian English: “He’s shooting the ball really well right now. It’s kind of weird. He didn’t have a good year last year. He kind of struggled over the summer, and his confidence is at a different level right now.”
The Bulldogs improved to 5-0 on the season and won Pool A of the 46th annual Classic. They’ll play Pool B winner Kelly at 1:30 p.m. today for a spot in the championship game at 7:30 tonight.
Louisiana Christian, of Breaux Bridge, dropped to 12-5, but not after coming back from an 11-0 hole to start the game.
“I’m glad we got off to a good start because they [LCS] started feeling it a little bit and got hot,” English said. “They made a game of it, and we beat a really good team tonight.”
The Disciples led for the final 4:06 — that was, until Smith’s buzzer-beater. With no timeouts remaining for Nederland and LCS just hitting 1 of 2 free throws, Jones — who finished with 24 points — quickly pushed the ball down the court to the left of the top of the key. Seeing a potential trap in the Disciples’ zone, Jones did enough to draw the defense away from Jones and made the winning assist.
That final 4:06 turned into a free-throw battle. The Disciples made only 4 of 10 in that span, missing two crucial shots with 20 seconds left and a 59-57 lead.
Nederland went 3 for 8 down that stretch. Kevin Howard missed the first of two on his trip with 7.4 ticks remaining but made the second.
Taye Green, who went empty on his last trip, made only the second toss 1.2 seconds later.
Nederland made 16 of 28 for the game, topping LCS’ 10 for 20.
“We practice them every day,” Smith said. “We usually shoot good. I guess it was just the pressure.”
Jones, usually a point guard, spent most of the game playing the small and big forward positions. He keyed the Bulldogs’ quick start and had 16 points at halftime.
LCS heated up from the floor to pull within 35-32 at the break and went on an 8-0 run to start the third quarter. The Disciples’ biggest lead was 46-40 later in the period.
Howard finished with 16 points. Kevonte Wilson led the Disciples with 21, Green added 17 and Jacob Maxwell totaled 12.

VICTORY PREP 52, PNG 46
NEDERLAND — Port Neches-Groves proved it can play with the big boys.
The Indians (1-4) rallied from a 15-point deficit to pull within three in the final seconds, but the Cardinals (6-3) managed to force a turnover, get a key rebound and make free throws to hold on for the victory.
“The kids shot the ball well when they had to and got us back in the ballgame,” PNG coach Pat Abel said. “A few turnovers here and no rebounds in crucial times, and [Victory} is an awesome team. It’s just amazing. I’m so proud of the way they played. That game should have been a lot worse than it was, and our kids’ heart kept us in it.”
Edsel Damo canned four of his six three-point baskets in the second quarter and finished with a game-high 20 points for PNG. Derrick Papa added eight points, all in the fourth quarter.
The Indians made 11 threes, five of them in the fourth period to come back from a 45-30 hole.
Jeremy Robertson had 19 points to lead VPrep, which competes in the Texas Christian Athletic League. Jarred Vanderbilt, the heavily recruited 6-foot-7 senior forward, was held to eight points.
Vanderbilt is considering between Kentucky, North Carolina, Kansas, Texas and TCU, according to 247sports.com.
“You have to be aware of him all the time,” Abel said. “You can’t stop for one second and let him go by or forget he’s there because he’ll hurt you. I think we did a great job covering him, but he’s such a factor on the floor because he can open so many people up because of his consideration.”
Victory Prep is coached by Rodney McCray, a former University of Louisville and Houston Rockets standout.
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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews