Panthers crush LHS for district win

Published 1:00 am Sunday, January 13, 2019

By NEAL MCCLELLAND

The Daily Iberian

After dropping their first two game to start District 7-2A play, the Catholic High Panthers needed a confidence boost, an a couple of wins, to get back some swagger as CHS heads into the meat of its district schedule.

Thursday night, the Panthers got a little confidence back with a 47-37 victory over Teurlings to stop a two-game losing skid.

Friday night, CHS came out hot and took advantage of a young Loreauville squad and beat the Tigers 69-29 for its first district win of the season. The much-needed win allowed the Panthers to keep pace with district leaders Franklin, Jeanerette and West St. Mary.

“We’ve been on the road for quite a while now and we had two home games back-to-back with Tuerlings and tonight against Loreauville,” said CHS coach Josh Guilbeau. “It was nice to have one where we had good team effort, shot the ball well, played good team defense and overall was a great game for us.”

Kolbe Chretien led the way with 16 points as 10 different Panthers scored at least two points in the the game as CHS improved to 12-10 overall, 1-2 in district and have won two straight and four of their last six headed into Tuesday’s District 7-2A contest at Delcambre.

“Our district is a pretty competitive district,” said Guilbeau. “Going on the road is always going to be tough. We’re at Delcambre Tuesday, I expect that’s going to be a tough game so coming back home and getting some bounce after that opening stretch is going to help us down the road.”

Chretien scored 10 of his points in the first quarter and Kaiden Burgess had four of his 10 points in the period as CHS bolted out to a 21-4 lead over the winless Tigers.

That allowed Guilbeau to empty his bench and give some of the reserves some needed playing time.

The Panthers held leads of 35-11 at halftime and 59-20 at the end of the third quarter in the blowout win.

First-year coach Loreauville coach Eric Howard, who took over for long-time coach Paul Reed this year, is was another building block for his team.

“We got started real late,” said Howard. “I didn’t get hired until late and we didn’t have any summer program or time to put anything in.

“Football season ended and literally we started and we started with games as well. The kids are giving me everything they have but right now we’re not very skilled yet and we’re working hard and have an opportunity build something.

“It’s just that right now we’re having to eat is a little bit.”

Nick Deal and Justin Nora each had eight points for the Tigers, who fell to 0-12, 0-3 in district ahead of Tuesday’s game at Ascension Episcopal.

For Guilbeau, it was a good way to end the district skid that started with a loss to West St. Mary last week and was followed with a loss to Jeanerette in which the Panthers saw a fourth-quarter lead evaporate into a 10 point loss.

“Against Jeanerette we played well for three quarters and then gave it back to them in the fourth quarter,” said Guilbeau. “West St. Mary just took it to us on the boards. The outrebounded us on the offensive end and you’re not going to win many games that way.

“We have to take care of business next week against two district opponents and see how everything shakes and then defend home court when we get Jeanerette and West St. Mary here in the second round.”