The Lake Charles College Prep boys basketball team is off to its best start in program history using a rugged defensive strategy.

“I believe we are very hard to score against,” Trailblazers head coach Sean Andrus said. “The guys really buy in, whether it’s full court or whether we’re trying to do something in the half court. They really buy into playing defense and really try to strive to hold teams under 50 points each game. And that’s kind of been the catalyst for us. Whether we play the top team in the state in 5A to the lowest team, I don’t think anybody scored over 65 maybe.”

The Trailblazers’ 16-4 start improves on their 13-6 start in 2018-2019 and 2022-2023. The Trailblazers are No. 5 in the Louisiana High School Athletic Association Select Division I power ratings.

Defense was key on Jan. 13 in the Trailblazers’ 62-59 overtime win over Cecilia on Monday. Izayha Brown got a steal and deflected the ball to junior point guard Jaiven Matthews to go up four points.

“That kind of sealed the game for us after that,” Andrus said. “That was a big play because you have to dive in front of a guy to get the deflection in and save it in bounds.

“It didn’t even go out of bounds. He tipped it right to J. He got us a wide-open layup.”

Early in the season, LCCP knocked off Wossman, the defending Non-select Division II state championship and the Select Division II runner-up Madison Prep at Hamilton Christian’s Showdown in the Lake tournament. They held Madison Prep to 42 points and beat Wossman by one in overtime.

“That whole tournament I thought we played good defense, besides the championship game,” Andrus said.

Brown, the lone senior in the starting lineup, and junior Juriah Warren plus senior Raylond Landry, who comes off the bench, help fuel the defense.

“(Brown) kind of does everything for us,” Andrus said. “Whether it’s guarding somebody on the perimeter, guarding the best player, guarding somebody inside, that’s Izayha Brown. “And then we bring senior guard Raylond Landry off the bench, and he’s an energy guy defensively. He comes in and changes the tempo of the whole game for us when he comes in. Also, Juriah Matthews takes the challenge a lot of times too and guards, usually, the best perimeter player that starts for us.”

While the Trailblazers are not necessarily a high-scoring team, their defensive play creates a lot of points.

“We get a lot of points off of turnovers, and then we also get a lot of points off of protecting the rim,” Andrus said. “That’s another guy, Evan Burns. He’s probably averaging about three blocks a game for us. It changes the game because he’ll block the shot and he’ll keep it in bounds. It gives us a chance to get out and transition.”

Matthews leads LCCP in scoring with 11.2 points a game followed by Warren at 10.9 and Burns, a junior center, at 9.1. Brown and junior wing Jordan Dugas have had multiple double-digit scoring games.

“We’re pretty balanced offensively,” Andrus said. “I know Jaiven Matthews leads us in scoring, but if you look at our stats and everything, there’s no guy that’s really averaging more than 12 points.

“We kind of spread it around pretty well. One night, Jaiven might lead us in scoring. The other might beat Juriah. Sometimes it’s Evan Burns, and sometimes it’s Caden Jones coming off the bench. So we have a lot of balance.”

Andrus is working to keep his team from becoming complacent and to stay focused on improvement.

“We want to protect home,” Andrus said. “The guys know that one of our goals this year is not to lose at home, so continue to build that home-court advantage, get better defensively and get continued stops and live-ball turnovers so we can run in transition.

“And then just continue to execute on offense and try to give ourselves a chance to win every game, offensively and defensively, so we won’t have to stress so much on the defensive side of the court.”