Tuesday, January 3, 2017 1BTHE TOWN TALK

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SPORTS

Thesmallschools

are back witha vengeance!

Aftertaking aweek off for

the Christmas holidays, wereturn with the Cenla’s Top 10as small schools took theirmighty slingshots and slayedthe Goliaths to move up onthe list.

As a result, we have a new

No. 1. Who is it?So, without further ado...1. Winnfield (15-2, LW: 2):

The Tigerettes are the newNo. 1 team on this list aftergoing 3-0 over the last twoweeks and jumping out to a2-0 start in District 3-3A, byearning a 50-47 victory overMarksville on Friday. Stand-ing out when her team neededher the most, senior KaylaKing had a stat line of 18points, eight rebounds andfive steals, while junior RainaKing added 13 points andseven rebounds. This week,Winnfield has tough roadtests in Jena and Avoyelles.

2. Fairview (25-2, LW: 5):The Lady Panthers added totheir impressive resume lastFriday after taking downprevious No. 1 NatchitochesCentral -- giving them a 6-2records against schools from

Classes 3A, 4A and 5A. Asdistrict play nears, they’llhave a big showdown againstPlainview in Glenmora onFriday.

3. Natchitoches Central(11-5, LW: 1): The Lady Chiefsdrop in the rankings for thefirst time this year after fall-ing to Fairview in their onlygame last week to close outthe calendar year. Despite theloss, NCHS had three playersin double-figures -- led byKierra Brimzy’s 18 points and12 rebounds -- while MariahJones scored nine points andeight assists.

4. Lakeview (11-4, LW: 4):Battle tested over the pasttwo weeks, the Lady Gatorswon three of four -- includingtaking down Rapides, 82-73,at The Swamp on Dec. 20.While NyKeria Jones con-tinues to light up the score-

board (19.0 points per game inthe three wins), Lakeview hasother scorers as Jada Wil-liams and Shunderika Brow-der have stepped up to form asolid “Big Three”.

5. Plainview (19-3, LW:NR): The Lady Hornets makethe biggest jump this week --graduating from the Gaf-ford’s 11th spot to the top fiveby winning three of their lastfour games. While Plainview’s12-game winning streak wassnapped by Iota in a 55-51overtime loss on Dec. 19, itmore than redeemed itselfwith wins against Oakdaleand Alexandria Senior High.

6. ASH (12-4, LW: 3): TheLady Trojans dropped a pairof game over the last twoweeks, including a home datewith Plainview last Friday to

GIRLS BASKETBALL

Tigerettes move up to No. 1 spot in Top 10Winnfield has gone3-0 over last twoweeks; has toughroad ahead

LAMARGAFFORD

See GAFFORD, Page 2B

NEW ORLEANS SAINTS

DERICK E. HINGLE-USA TODAY SPORTS

New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton’s future with the team is in question.The Saints lost numerous close games this past season and ended with a 7-9 record.

“We’re 7-9. It just comeswith the territory. I think Sean Payton will be here.

He’s the best coachthat we’ll have.”ZACH STRIEFNEW ORLEANS SAINTS OFFENSIVE TACKLE

ON THE LINEATLANTA - Sean Pay-

ton was in no mood totalk about his future.

When someone asked Sun-day if he expects to returnnext season as coach of theNew Orleans Saints, Paytonsnapped, “Next question.”

But as the Saintsclosed out a thirdstraight losing sea-son with a 38-32 lossto the Atlanta Fal-cons, there was littledoubt that Payton’sstatus was the big is-sue heading into theoffseason.

NFL.com report-ed before the seasonfinale that Paytonmight be in line totake over the LosAngeles Rams, whoare seeking a re-placement for JeffFisher.

Payton was oncethe toast of New Or-leans, posting a rec-ord of 62-34 over hisfirst six years withthe team, includingfour playoff appear-ances and the fran-chise’s lone Super

Bowl title.Since being sus-

pended for a year ina bounties scandal,Payton is 32-32 witha single playoff ap-pearance in 2013.The last three sea-sons all ended with a7-9 mark.

QuarterbackDrew Brees, whoput up his fifth sea-son with 5,000 yardspassing and also setan NFL record forcompletions in ayear, said he “has noreason to believe”Payton won’t beback.

“I thought we hada better team thanwhat our recordended up being,”

PAUL NEWBERRYAP SPORTS WRITER

See PAYTON,Page 3B

To understand what amassive mess LaneKiffin has left on his

way to Boca Raton, with NickSaban on the cusp of his sixthnational title, it’s worth con-sidering one of his trademarkphrases that explains Ala-bama’s robotic, monotonousgreatness.

Listen to Saban longenough and you’ll understandthat “external factors” are allthat can derail him becausehis program is built to with-stand everything else. It’s therandomness, the uncontrol-lable forces that keep Sabanperpetually on edge, and hisfight to limit them is built into

every aspect of the program.So given everything we

know about Saban’s disdainfor “external factors,” hisdecision to part ways withKiffin now — a week beforeAlabama plays Clemson forthe College Football Playoffchampionship — is nothingshort of stunning.

For all the innuendo abouttheir broken behind-the-scenes relationship, for all thesnide comments Kiffin madein front of the media lastweek, for all the rage Sabandisplayed at Alabama’s dis-jointed offensive perfor-mance against Washingtonand for all the natural dis-tractions that would comealong with another round ofKiffin story lines in Tampa,the best coach in the historyof college football has decid-ed that a new set of “externalfactors” is preferable to theone he has already been deal-ing with.

Though some will try tospin this as no big deal for aprogram that has won 26consecutive games, it is amassive gamble that couldeasily cost Alabama thechampionship.

It’s also an admission fromSaban that the offense Ala-bama displayed in the PeachBowl, which was too cute byhalf in its approach and toodisjointed in its execution,wasn’t good enough to get thejob done against DeshaunWatson and Co.

There are no shortage orreasons why this is a massiverisk, even for Alabama.

For one, Sarkisian hasn’tbeen the primary playcallersince the 2014 season, cedingthose duties at Southern Calto Clay Helton at the start of2015.

Though Sarkisian has plen-ty of experience calling plays,

COMMENTARY

Ditching Kiffin now is a big risk, even for AlabamaChange comesbefore the CFP titlegame vs. ClemsonDAN WOLKENUSA TODAY SPORTS

See KIFFIN, Page 2B

BRETT DAVIS-USA TODAY SPORTS

Alabama Crimson Tidequarterback Jalen Hurts (2) talkswith former offensive coordinatorLane Kiffin. Kiffin is going to bethe head coach at Florida AtlanticUniversity and will not be theoffensive coordinator for the Tidein the CFP title game.

CONWAY, Arkansas – TheNorthwestern State women’sbasketball team knew it faced abig challenge in Central Arkan-sas’ Southland Conference-leading defense Monday night.

That portion of the SugarBears’ game showed up, but sodid the Central Arkansas of-fense. The Sugar Bears shot 50percent from the field in thefirst half, building an 18-pointlead and setting the tone for an76-43 victory.

Northwestern State droppedits third straight game, fallingto 6-7 overall and 0-2 in confer-ence play.

“We’re not doing the littlethings,” first-year head coachJordan Dupuy said. “We’re notblocking out. We don’t run ouroffense. We’re not going giveup. We’re going to keep grind-ing. It’s all about doing the littlethings. This is the same resultwe’re going to get if we keep do-ing the same thing we’ve beendoing.”

Even after Central Arkansas(9-3, 1-1) slowed down offensive-ly early in the second half,Northwestern State did as well.

The Lady Demons shot 27.3percent from the field in thesecond half and finished thegame shooting 31.9 percent. Af-ter hitting 42.9 percent of theirshots in the opening quarter,NSU found the UCA defensetough to crack.

NSU limited the Sugar Bearsto 31.3-percent shooting in thethird quarter before Central Ar-kansas hit 9 of its 10 shots fromthe field in the fourth quarter.The Sugar Bears finished thegame by hitting 52 percent fromthe field.

Just three Lady Demonscracked the scoring columnthrough the first three quar-ters, led by Beatrice Attura,who finished with 16 points.Cheyenne Brown added 11

NSU BASKETBALL

UCA hands LadyDemons thirdstraight lossJASON PUGHNSUDEMONS.COM

See NSU, Page 2B