Editor’s Note:

Thursday night’s championship game finished after deadline for Friday’s Daily Iberian.

ABBEVILLE — A lot of players on Loreauville High School’s boys’ basketball team played football for the Tigers in the fall, and their run to the Class 2A quarterfinals seems to have prepared them for the hardwood season as well.

Loreauville pulled away late in the finals of the Vermilion Catholic Yuletide Classic Thursday night, beating the host Eagles 57-52 to win the tournament championship.

LHS led 14-12 after one quarter, trailed 31-29 at halftime and was ahead 43-42 at the end of three periods.

“We’re going in the right direction,” said Loreauville coach Paul Reed, in his third year back at the school after a stint at West St. Mary. “The good thing is a lot of these kids play football. They know how to play in big games.”

Reed said VC did a good job shooting the ball in the first half, but some halftime adjustments made a difference for the Tigers. Loreauville began applying more defensive pressure and got some turnovers, and challenged Vermilion Catholic’s shots.

In addition, the coach said, his big guys did a great job on the backboards, helping overcome a poor shooting performance by his team.

“Dustin Anthony, Kyle Francois and Jermaine Antoine did a good job on offensive rebounds,” said Reed. “That’s what won it; the adjustment we made at halftime (defensively), and the offensive rebounds.”

Antoine and John Reed led Loreauville with 12 points each, while Raymond Bonnette and Joseph Dressel had 8 points apiece.

Bonnette was named the tournament MVP, while John Reed was named to the All-Tournament Team.

Jacob Broussard led Vermilion Catholic with 22 points and Emile Chaisson had 13.

Loreauville (8-5) will travel to Ville Platte Tuesday to open District 6-2A play against Sacred Heart.

In earlier games Thursday, Erath beat Vermilion Catholic 40-36 in the girls’ consolation final, Catholic High beat Kaplan 57-53 in overtime in the boys’ consolation final (as reported in Friday’s Daily Iberian), Kaplan beat Carencro 45-28 in the girls’ third-place game, Basile beat Ascension Episcopal 54-29 in the boys’ third-place game and Vandebilt Catholic beat Abbeville 41-35 in the girls’ championship game.

Erath 40, Vermilion Catholic 36

Erath trailed 25-21 after three quarters but outscored Vermilion Catholic 19-11 in the fourth to claim the girls’ consolation title.

Megan Norris had half of her team’s points — 20 — while Tori Moss had 7 and Hailey Landry and Caitlen Domingue had 6 apiece.

Katie Frith led VC with 15 points. Katie Meaux added 7 and Mikhyla Campbell and Chelsie Vallot had 6 each.