JONESVILLE, La. &045; Block’s Lady Bears withdrew from the Class 1A playoffs after school officials self-reported the use of an ineligible player, an LHSAA official said.

Oak Grove principal Mark Bowman, the Class 1A representative on the LHSAA’s executive council, said the school reported the ineligibility Tuesday morning shortly before brackets were released just after 10 a.m.

Logansport, scheduled to play at Block Thursday, will now receive a bye into the second round.

&uot;As of 8:30 they were on the bracket,&uot; Bowman said. &uot;I guess they just now caught this. They called in and reported themselves.&uot;

The Lady Bears played Monday night and beat Newellton 77-70 in a first-place tie-breaker after both teams finished 7-1 in district. Block principal Don Money said he found out about the ineligible player Tuesday morning after a fax came over about an ineligible player with the Newellton boys’ team.

Money acknowledged had he known about the ineligible player prior to Monday’s game, he would have cancelled it.

&uot;We had an ineligible player that I did not know anything about until this morning,&uot; Money said. &uot;I just did a grade check. I’ve heard of four teams in this district that played ineligible players. I just wanted to make sure this morning that we didn’t have any, and unfortunately we had one that had been playing that wasn’t eligible.&uot;

Money said it’s been common in years past to have academic issues with basketball just due to the timing of the season. The LHSAA calls for schools to monitor a student-athlete’s academic requirements at mid-term, which fell Jan. 12.

Students must pass five subjects and have a minimum 1.5 GPA.

&uot;If you’re going to get caught, it’s always basketball season because mid-term falls right in basketball season,&uot; he said. &uot;That was the case.&uot;

The Lady Bears had to forfeit each of their district games except the Jan. 11 contest against Davidson. Their district record changed from 8-1 to 1-8, and officials with the LHSAA went ahead and awarded Logansport a bye instead of moving runner-up Newellton up to the District 4 champ slot in the bracket.

The news ended a productive season for the Lady Bears, who were in the playoffs for the third straight season.

&uot;It’s unfortunate,&uot; Money said. &uot;Coach (Veronica) Savage told (the team). I had to tell her, which is worse, probably. It wasn’t good. There’s nothing good about it. It could have been worse if we had gone on and won a game and the LHSAA would have found out.&uot;