Showdown looming

Published 5:45 am Tuesday, February 6, 2018

It wasn’t very pretty, and if you ask CHS girls basketball coach Dave Theriot, it was downright sloppy, but in the end, the Catholic High Lady Panthers took care of business with a 50-38 District 7-2A  win over Loreauville.

With the win, the district championship comes down to the last regular season game as Catholic High travels to Delcambre Friday night. 

If DHS wins, it wins the outright district title for the first time since the 2009-10 season. If Catholic High wins, there will be a two-way and possibly a three-way tie between CHS, Delcambre and Ascension Episcopal for the title.

“A co-championship is better than no championship,” said Theriot. “You have to give Delcambre a lot of credit for being where they are at. They are so well-coached it’s going to be a challenge and Lisa (DHS coach Lisa Richard) does a great job of getting them ready to play.”

Madison Bienvenu led the way with 25 points as Catholic High twice took double-digit leads only to see a scrappy Loreauville squad rally to within a single point twice in the second half but each time the Lady Panthers were able to hold on to the lead and eventually pulled away in the fourth quarter to set up Friday’s big showdown.

“Tonight was sloppy,” said Theriot, whose team improved to 13-12 overall, 10-3 in district and have won seven straight games, 10 of the last 11 and is the first time this season they’ve been above .500. “We threw the ball away a lot, we didn’t block out well, we shot sloppy from the outside.

“Mo (Bienvenu) carried us on the inside like she normally does and then late in the third quarter they cut the lead to one point but we stung them with our full-court press.”

Theriot added that going to the press wasn’t a desperation move because CHS had almost lost a 17 point lead, he was just trying to change the tempo of the game and show Loreauville something different.

“They were going up and we were going down and we needed some energy,” said the CHS coach. “So we changed up and went to the press to kind of change the momentum.”

The change of pace worked as Catholic High ran off a 10-0 run to take control of the game and was able to pull away from that point.

Lauren Bonin added 10 points and Christina Viator chipped in eight for the Lady Panthers, who haven’t won a district title in more than a decade.

“This game was the final step for us to have a chance to play for the district title,” said Theriot. “But Loreauville didn’t make it easy for us.

“They played pretty good defense and we had some careless passing. We were throwing the ball to where someone should have been and they weren’t and the ball was going our of bounds.

“We didn’t protect the ball well. We got away with it, but we just can’t do that and expect to win.”

Loreauville, which came into the season and the defending district champions, fell to 4-18 overall and 4-9 in district.

They were led by Emma Chambers with 13 points and Precious Porvist with 10 points. The Lady Tigers close out the regular season on the road Friday at Ascension Episcopal.

As for CHS, the Lady Panthers now get ready for the most important game of the season.

“We’re going to approach it in the words of (former UCLA Men’s coach) John Wooden,” said Theriot. “Make sure that you’re ready for the every day game and the big game will take care of itself.

“I don’t think that we need to do much to motivate them for Friday. Lisa (Richard) is going to have her team fired up, we’re going to be self-motivated. I think that we’re going to be ready.”

Vermilion Catholic 73,

Delcambre 22

ABBEVILLE —Ainsley Mallot outscored the entire Delcambre team as the Lady Panthers winning streack came to an end Monday with a 73-22 non-district loss to Vermilion Catholic.

Mallot had 24 points, Anne Catherine Gallet added 12 points and Kyrah Brailey finisehd with 10 points as VC jumped out to a 21-4 first quarter lead and cruised to the win.

Ali Rae Falgout led Delcambre with 10 points while Amalie Bouton added five points.

Vermilion Catholic improved to 18-6 with the win, Delcambre, which saw it’s 10 game win streak come to an end, fell to 12-19 overall.

There were no other local scores reported to the Daily Iberian Monday.