Long Time Coming: Plain Dealing ends 37-game losing streak on final shot
by William Weathers // GeauxPreps.com Contributor
Throughout his coach’s final instructions, Plain Dealing senior Jayden Ray became determined to take things into his own hands to stop a prolonged stretch of misery.
For the first time in 715 days – spanning 2 ½ seasons – the Lions were in position to win a game, trailing by two points to host Pickering in a non-district game on Dec. 30.
The two teams in search of their first wins of the season had put on quite a show, trading leads and each putting together runs in the game, when a pair of free throws gave Pickering a 72-70 lead with nine seconds left.
“We added the game when I got there,” Plain Dealing first-year coach DeAnthony Lyons. “The coach reached out and how they were also rebuilding. We thought it was best for both of our programs to play a competitive game.”
Plain Dealing (1-13) faced the prospect of having to go the length of the court to either tie or win the game, something the Lions hadn’t done since a 52-50 win over Glenbrook on Feb. 7, 2024
A knockaway advanced the ball to the sideline, where Plain Dealing was able to get the ball to Ray, the team’s leading scorer. He split a double team near midcourt with 4.8 seconds showing, got to the top of the key for a wide-open 3-point attempt that swished through the net with 3.3 seconds left.
“I thought as a senior I’ve got to take the last shot, even if it’s not open,” Ray said. “I was going to take the last shot and just live with it. I made a couple of dribbles and shot it. The next thing you knew, it went straight in.
“I was going for the win,” Ray said. “I didn’t see any of my teammates open when I came up the court. With that amount of time left, and nobody open, I knew I had to make a quick decision. I just wanted to throw it up and see what happened. We made magic open.”
Pickering had a player under the goal, but didn’t attempt to inbound the ball as the buzzer sounded.
Plain Dealing’s girls’ team, which had won earlier, 44-39, came onto the court to celebrate the moment with their counterparts.
“I think they were so shaken when the ball went in,” Ray said of Pickering, which fell to 0-17.
Lyons was immediately telling his team to get back on defense. When you have lost 37 consecutive games, you’ve grown accustomed to expecting the worst even when a light finally starts to break through.
“I’d seen people celebrate buzzer beaters,” he said. “After he (Ray) made the shot, he ran down to the 3-point line, that’s something we practice. When the buzzer went off, I was just like, ‘Thank you, God.’ Who would have thought that everybody gave up on this team and they could come three hours away to get a win?”
Lyons relaxed his rules on celebrating, allowing his players just enough time to rejoice on the court before making certain they shook hands with Pickering’s players. Then it was off to a boisterous locker room for a special moment for players such as Ray, who been through some difficult times since joining the program in the eighth grade.
“Everyone was pumped up,” he said. “You can’t imagine how loud it was in the locker room; how joyful and happy we were to get that win.”
There may be more advantageous places to become a first-time head coach than taking over a program that has lost its last 24 games.
But that’s where Lyons felt compelled to begin his career after two years as an assistant to Lakinya Curry with Arcadia’s girls, who won the Division IV nonselect state championship in 2023-24 and were state runner-up last season.
“I understood what I was getting myself into,” he said. “At the time, they hadn’t won a game in over 1 ½ years. I have the type of mentality with the discipline to build the program up. It was a challenge I was willing to take. I kind of had to change the culture, that people said they weren’t good enough. I’ve told them a lot of times if you outwork someone, we’ll be in a good situation.”
Lyons was part of basketball royalty in North Louisiana. His grandfather, Michael Lyons, won a total of 1,171 games – 737 with the boys, 434 with the girls – at Grambling Lab, where he won six state championships with such players at Byron Starks, Paul Millsaps, Antonio Hudson, and Jerald Honeycutt.
A member of the Grambling Hall of Fame, Michael Lyons, passed away at the age of 72 in February 2023.
Lyons’ father, Jermanus, was a part of three of Michael Lyons’ state championship teams.
“Been around the game forever,” DeAnthony said. “I’ve been around basketball since I could walk and talk.”
DeAnthony Lyons had also established impressive credentials with his time in the U.S. Army as an automotive logistical specialist. He earned a degree in mathematics from the American Military University and his master’s in educational leadership from the University of North Texas.
He taught mathematics at Union Elementary in Farmerville and Arcadia High.
“I just felt led by God to take the position,” he said. “I was praying about it. I have a son, and eventually I wanted to get to the boys’ side. After much prayer and a lot of talk with my family, we made the move for my career.”
Lyons took the job with a month remaining in the summer, limiting him to a couple of weeks with the returning basketball players. He introduced himself, his philosophy and system, and with the great amount of his team playing football, a group he didn’t see again until after their last game.
Plain Dealing completed a 0-9 season in football, extending the state’s longest losing streak to 42 games.
“Two days after the football season, we had a practice that Monday, and the jamboree was the following Saturday,” he said. “We’ve been working hard ever since.”
Plain Dealing scored less than 10 points three times during a trying 0-22 season in 2024-25. The closest margin of defeat was 28 in a 55-27 setback to Glenbrook.
With only five players, the Lions were simply outmatched and suffered their fifth consecutive losing season. The last time the school made the playoffs was 2019-20 when they went 12-11 and lost in the second round.
Lyons was able to grow his roster to 12 this season with three seniors, four sophomores, three freshmen, two eighth graders, and two seventh graders.
“We’re building day by day,” he said.
More importantly, though, was the start of a junior high team for the first time in 15 years with eight players, he said.
“I take it one game at a time,” Lyons said. “I teach the guys to play hard and do the right things. Right place, right time, right uniform, doing the right things, success is bound to happen. I know they look at me to help motivate them. I can’t give up on them, and they haven’t given up on me.
“I approach every game looking for improvement,” Lyons said. “They didn’t win a game last year. They were running the clock in the first quarter (result of 35-point differential). That was a goal we set when I got here. Let’s try not to have the clock running on us in the first half. I take small victories from games.”
Ray praised the efforts of Lyons and his impact on the program.
“He’s the best coach for the program,” he said. “As a team, we knew this day was coming. We worked every day in practice. Coach does his best to teach us to his best ability. It came true.”
Plain Dealing found a couple of concrete examples of the type of progress Lyons was looking for.
In the second game of the season, the Lions lost at home to Magnolia School of Excellence, 55-43, before missing 29 free throws in a 60-51 loss to Lakeside.
“Magnolia was one we felt we could come out victorious,” Lyons said. “Lakeside was one the guys took hard because they missed 29 free throws. Day by day, we’re getting better.”
The losses continued to mount.
Plain Dealing endured setbacks by 30 points or more with a high of 67 in an 80-13 loss to Class 4A Woodlawn-Shreveport.
Just over a week later, the school’s two teams piled onto a bus for a 292-mile round trip down south during the holidays in search of an elusive win.
The Lady Lions did their part in the first game of the doubleheader, anxiously awaiting their counterparts in the second game.
“We were confident on the bus ride that we were going to come out with that win,” Ray said. “We knew we were going to make something happen that day.”
What Lyons described was the beauty of sports.
Two evenly-matched teams – a combined 0-29 – staged a competitive battle that seemingly swung on each made basket.
Plain Dealing made up a one-point deficit following halftime with a 9-0 run, Lyons said. The Lions later lost one of the better defenders, who had to go to the bench with four fouls.
That opened the door for a 12-0 burst from Pickering. Lyons said a timeout helped his team regroup and regain a three-point edge when the player with foul trouble left with a fifth foul and his team on the wrong side of a 4-0 run.
“I explained to the guys to pick up their heads and not to quit on me,” Lyons said during a timeout with 1:13 left. “If we do our jobs for the next 1:13, we’ll be in the right position. We got a steal and layup and were in full court (pressure), denying the ball. They turned it over, and we scored with 20 seconds left. We fouled, and Picking made two free throws to go up two, and I called our last timeout.”
Lyons was well aware that Pickering would pay close attention to Ray and thought about using him as a decoy to create options for other players to score.
When he noticed Ray got the ball, slipped two defenders in his way without getting a foul called, Lyons understood what was coming next.
“I told Jayden once he got it that if he didn’t have an open man, to take it,” he said. “He split the trap, and he said the only thing he saw was the goal, and he threw it up. It happened to go in. I told them I could live with us losing. I couldn’t take a loss if we hadn’t gotten a shot up, and the rest is history.”
Ray, who finished with a game-high 33 points, went to work and changed the outlook of an entire program, his school, and community.
A.J. Taylor also scored 13, and Koda Ward had 10.
“I told them we couldn’t lose,” Ray said. “As a senior, I had to take matters into my own hands. It feels great to win again. We hadn’t won a game in a minute. That was a shining moment.”
Lyons deflected the credit to his team that remained resolute in the face of past adversity.
“It’s nothing that I did,” he said. “It’s all that they did. I just told them not to give up on me, give me everything that you have. To do your job, and we’ll be good. They bought into that like stopping their man or getting a rebound. For the first time all year, I think we played a complete 32 minutes as a team.”
Lyons was also able to reflect five months after taking a job that most observers warned him against taking.
“I have a chip on my shoulder,” he said. “When I took the job, they told me the job was impossible to win at Plain Dealing, and I use that as motivation every day. I told the kids, ‘Let’s change everybody’s perspective. Let’s change this history for the right reason.
“I’ve had a lot of people, such as my parents and an uncle that have kept me motivated,” he said. “They’ve always told me the guys were buying in, and they needed a win. After the win, I could see they were ready to work a little harder. Now they believe they can win. They believe they can compete with teams in our talent range. The morale is high.”
Plain Dealing loaded its bus for the return trip to Bossier Parish. After munching on Domino’s pizza, the entire bus went quiet.
“Everyone was sleeping,” Lyons said.
Near the end of three-hour return trip, with the team’s bus approaching a set of railroad tracks, Lyons was awakened by one of his assistants to flashing blue lights.
Lyons glanced at his phone to find a message in the team’s group chat that one of the parents had called the local police station asking for an escort back to the school. When the bus arrived at school, players saw 15-20 vehicles lined up with their lights on, music playing at 11:45 p.m.
“Everyone’s going live on Facebook,” Lyons said. “It made me feel good for the boys. The guys wanted to know what was going on. Everyone’s looking at me, wondering if everything’s good. They’re concerned that late at night. I’m grateful for the community. You would have thought we won the state championship. The kids needed to see that. The parents celebrated the small victories with us.”
Lyons said the parents of one of his players thanked him for creating such a moment.
“I asked for what?” he said. “They said so many people had given up on our young men. No matter what adversity came, you stayed the same since Day 1. You don’t know how much hope you gave the community.”
Lyons recalled telling his team in their victorious locker room that the triumph had face-reaching effects.
“I told them it wasn’t just for us, but it was for the community,” he said. “I don’t see many people supporting a program that hasn’t had a lot of success, which lost 35 (actually 37) consecutive games. That’s why I told them to cherish this moment. We’re going to use this is as fuel. It meant everything to me.”
Lyons gave his team time off to enjoy time with their families before returning to practice Sunday to prepare for a home game Monday with Summerfield at 6:30 p.m.
Plain Dealing will start the new year with a one-game win streak.
“I’ve said we’ve still got more games to win,” Ray said. “That was just one. It’s a process. We can make something happen. With coach Lyons, we’re only going to get better from here. Who knows what will happen?”