Catholic High Lady Panther basketball coach Dave Theriot knew the feeling all to well.

It wasn’t that long ago that he was in the same predicament.

“Let’s not forget that two years ago we were that team,” Theriot said after his Lady Panthers demolished Academy of the Sacred Heart-Grand Coteau 50-9 in a District 7-2A girls’ basketball game Wednesday. “We had our growing pains just like they have. We’ve come a long way and the girls really understand the game.

“We’re not 100 percent yet but we’re getting there.”

The defending district champion Lady Panthers sit atop the leaderboard after improving to 8-7 overall and 3-0 in district.

The only other team without a loss in district, Delcambre (2-0), played at Ascension Episcopal Wednesday.

After his team jumped out to a 17-0 first quarter lead, Theriot was able to rest his starters and give the reserves some quality minutes.

CHS held ASH scoreless for 14 minutes the game.

Playing shorthanded with only five players available, the Saints (0-6. 0-3) finally got on the board with a free throw and a basket from Madeline LeMaire in the final two minutes of the first half as Catholic High led 33-3 at the break.

“They wanted to reschedule the contest due to the fact that they were missing some of their players due to the Christmas break and we gave them a couple of options but it still wasn’t good for them so we just decided to play,” Theriot said. “I told the girls that we should win this game easily, so let’s go and win it easily. Let’s not go out and play down and they didn’t.

“We were able to give the J.V. some significant playing time, which will only help us later on.”

Theriot said that his team had some inconsistency this season.

“Sometimes we have the ability to play down,” Theriot said. “But then there are times where we’re playing up, like the Franklin game where we came out and played up and had some really good performances. 

“Lauren (Bonin) had five 3’s in the first half which opened up the inside-outside game and Madison (Bienvenu) finished with 34 points.”

The Lady Panthers are done with the non-district portion of their schedule and are in District 7-2A play the rest of the season. They play at Jeanerette Friday night.

Against the Saints, Hallee Mire had a career-high 9 points to lead the Lady Panthers while Zy’Rien Green and Bonin each had 8 points and Lauren Gonsoulin and Bienvenu each had 7 points.

LeMaire led ASH with 6 points. 

Catholic High 55, St. Martinville 51

ST. MARTINVILLE — Trey Amos scored 10 of his 18 points in the second half and Catholic High held off a late charge to beat St. Martinville Wednesday in a non-district boys’ basketball game.

Kolbe Chretien had 16 points, including three 3-pointers, and Kaiden Burgess chipped in 12 for the Panthers.

Catholic High outscored St. Martinville 17-12 in the second quarter to build a 24-18 halftime lead and held on in the second half for the win. CHS improved to 10-8 overall heading into its District 7-2A opener Friday at Jeanerette.

Jalen Mitchell led St. Martinville with a game-high 22 points, including 13 in the second half, and Daytavious Gabriel added 9 points. 

The Tigers fell to 7-14 overall ahead of Friday night’s home game against New Iberia Senior High.