Kierra Anthony (1) of NISH drives against Abbeville’s Arrayia Starlard (15) on Friday. - Lee Ball / The Daily Iberian

Thankfully, Kierra Anthony showed up when she did.

An undermanned Abbeville High was giving New Iberia Senior High fits Friday night in the second round of the Westgate High Tournament. The Lady Wildcats led 28-24 about midway through the third quarter and were threatening to hand the Lady Jackets a loss by preventing NISH from getting all the way involved with their run and gun offense.

That’s usually the time that Anthony, NISH’s current Class 5A honorable mention All-state guard from last season, decided to take control.

Anthony sliced through the lane for the layup, drew the foul, made the free throw, caused a defensive turnover, again drove the lane, pulled up, made the basket, caused another turnover and fed Moesha Kinard the ball for another basket.

Abbeville coach Dean Dronet called a time out, but the damage was done.

NISH took the lead for good moments later and cruised to a 47-42 win against the Lady Wildcats.

“That was a very good team we played tonight,” said NISH coach Robert Pinckney. “I think that it was our defense. We’ve been preaching that since day one. I think that in the end we wore them down a little bit.”

Anthony finished with 20 points to lead NISH, Kinard added 14 and Uri Jolivette had 10 for the Lady Jackets, but it was the Anthony show from the third quarter onward as she scored 15 points in the second half.

“She showed up when we needed her,” said Pinckney. “She’s just one of those players who doesn’t like to lose and once she sees her team is down, she increases her efforts.

“We’d like to have her do that from the opening tip, but she’s just one of those competitors that is going to fight and fight until the end.”

NISH’s run-and-gun style was effective against Abbeville, though the Lady Jackets struggled a bit with it in the first half against Abbeville’s inside presence. Pinckney said his team had too many missed shots on offense and gave up too many easy baskets on defense but once the team got back into the game, the new offensive set became easier to run.

“It’s still early in the season and we’re still pretty new to this,” said Pinckney. “Once we get used to what we’re doing we’re going to get better.”

Dronet, whose team lost several players to graduation off of a team that went to the quarterfinals in Class 3A last year, gave credit to NISH for not giving up.

“We were right there until the end,” said Dronet. “NISH hit a few key buckets down the stretch and that’s just how the way the ball bounces. We couldn’t find a way to score and gave them a few easy buckets.”

Derrian Nolan led Abbeville with 16 points and Jaquelia Davenport added 10 for the Lady Wildcats.

NISH beat Central Catholic in the semifinals and Ursuline Academy in the finals on Saturday.