DELCAMBRE — The Delcambre High Lady Panthers basketball season started off slow, a loss to Lake Arthur to open the season and three straight losses in the North Vermilion Tournament last week.

But two weeks into the season the Lady Panthers have seemed to turn things around as Delcambre won four-of-five games this week, including three wins in its own Lynette Viator Memorial Tournament, capped off by a 42-40 overtime win over Notre Dame Saturday.

Ali Rae Falgout had 19 points and Tayah Lewis added 11 as the Lady Panthers fell behind at halftime, rallied to tie the game at the end of regulation, then outscored Notre Dame 8-6 in the extra period to improve to 4-5 on the season headed into Monday’s game on the road at Kaplan.

“Definitely hoping that it wouldn’t go into overtime but very proud of the way the girls handled themselves,” said DHS coach Lisa Richard. “Very rough, chippy game out there but they composed themselves.

“Ali Rae, as a senior, stepped up tonight and played really, really well.”

Falgout, the great niece of Lynette Viator, scored seven of her 19 points in the overtime period as Delcambre went down early to the Lady Pioneers but rallied to take the lead and a free throw from Lewis late gave the Lady Panthers the two point win.

“Tayah’s pretty much been our leader for the past couple of years and Ali Rae has had a few rough games but when we needed someone else to step up she did.

“It’s Ali Rae’s aunt’s memorial tournament so it’s kind of cool that she had the night that she did.”

Delcambre’s big week started with a win over Class 5A Comeaux Monday, then beat Northside (42-41) Wednesday to start the tournament followed by a Thursday loss to Vermilion Catholic (59-38), then closed with a Friday win over Erath (33-25) and Saturday’s win over the Lady Pioneers.

“Four-for-five this week and capped off with Ali Rae’s standout game today,” said Richard. “She got the job done, which is great.”

Richard added that Delcambre’s slow start to the season usually comes from the fact that the majority of her players also play volleyball and she gives them a week off to recover before getting onto the basketball court.

“Four of my top seven or eight are volleyball players and I don’t allow them to do anything before we’re finished,” said Richard. 

“It’s always a slow and hard process to get them back into (basketball) shape and get them going.

“I told them that I wasn’t going to take it too easy on them because we only lost one player from last year’s team and we need to act like we are a new team and keep it going.

“I think they finally realized this week that was the way it needed to be and that we couldn’t start off slow. Although we’re not playing great basketball right now, we’re playing good basketball and that’s what matters right now and hopefully we can keept it going.”

Chloe Hernandez added seven points for Delcambre in the win.

Individual statistics for Notre Dame were not available.