La’Nasia Lively (3) and Laila Sigure (1) of New Iberia Senior High talk after Monday’s win at Breaux Bridge.

BREAUX BRIDGE — In the first few minutes of Monday’s girls’ basketball game at Breaux Bridge, the Lady Tigers had their way with New Iberia Senior High.

With 1:56 remaining in the first quarter, the Lady Tigers held an 11-2 lead, but NISH forward Laila Sigure was determined to rally her team with the help of Jasmine Picard, Zoriahn Davis and freshman Ahriyel JeanBaptiste.

JeanBaptiste came off the bench to drill a 3-pointer, her only bucket of the game, to bring NISH within 14-11 midway through the second quarter.

Sigure followed with a short jumper in the lane, and Picard made a nice pass that set up Davis for a driving layup. Sigure then scored again with four seconds left in the first half to give NISH an 18-16 lead, its first of the game.

In the second half, the Lady Jackets (6-5) pulled away to defeat the Lady Tigers 45-34. Breaux Bridge fell to 5-4.

“When you watch most of our games, you’ll see teams jump on us early,” NISH coach Chris Johnson said. “We fight from behind. I think I need to tell the scorekeeper to put it 8-0 and then we’ll play basketball. We play better from behind.

“I wasn’t worried. The biggest deal was that we like to force a lot of shots when we get down early. We tend to jack up quick shots, but this time we chipped away and went in down by seven at the end of the first quarter. Then we felt good and started attacking.”

The second-quarter rally was even more impressive considering that star sophomore guard La’Nasia Lively was forced to the bench midway through the quarter with her third foul. Despite being held scoreless in the first half, Lively exploded for 11 points in the third quarter and finished with 17. Lively had three 3-pointers in the third quarter.

“She is capable of lighting it up,” Johnson said of Lively. “She is hit and miss with the 3-pointer, but when she gets on, it’s going down.”

“It was tough for me because I couldn’t really help the team like I wanted and needed to,” Lively said of the early foul trouble. “It was discouraging when they took the lead early, but we kept our heads up.”

Davis, who scored 6 points, is an expert ballhandler who consistently got past Breaux Bridge defenders when the Lady Tigers attempted to press.

“She can really run the offense,” Johnson said of Davis. “She still has some work to do and some fine-tuning, but overall she runs it well.”

Sigure scored 12 of NISH’s 18 first-half points and finished with 19.

“Laila carried us in the first half,” Johnson said. “She is the one that we make everybody put our focus on, and then we let everybody feed off her. She forces the defense to concentrate on her, and everybody else starts scoring once they lock in on her.”