Blake

BALDWIN – Down eight points in the first quarter to Kinder, West St. Mary girls basketball coaches Connie Moore and Angel Dennis signaled for a timeout.

The Lady Wolfpack huddled, regrouped and rallied for a 74-57 win over the 25th-seeded Yellow Jackets in a Division III non-select first-round playoff game on Thursday.

“Our mindset wasn’t right in the early going,” WSM guard Garylon Brown said. “Our heads weren’t in the right place. We talked during the timeout, communicated and got it together.”

A steal and a lay-up from Brown got the third-seeded Wolfpack on the scoreboard. A few minutes later, she added three straight buckets to bring her team within 10-8.

A 3-pointer from Kaitlyn Blake gave WSM its first lead, and Brown followed with another field goal for a 15-12 lead at the end of the quarter.

Blake scored 25 points for WSM (18-7), which will host ninth-seeded Pine (15-10) on Monday. Pine downed No. 24 Port Barre 58-27 on Thursday.

“We come out slow sometimes, but we picked up the intensity and turned up,” Blake said. “We were nervous because it’s the playoffs.”

Brown, who tallied eight points in each of the first two quarters, finished with 27. As the final minute ticked off the scoreboard, she noticed something from the corner of her eye. Her mom had emerged from the lobby with a huge blue banner with Brown’s name on it.

The banner indicated that Brown had surpassed the 500-point mark for the season.

“I read the sign and saw the No. 13 (her jersey number),” Brown said. “I got excited. It’s a big thing for me. I didn’t know I had done it.”

WSM has won 13 straight games after beginning the season with a 5-7 record. The Wolfpack blazed through District 8-2A with a 12-0 record, winning by an average of 47.8 points per game.

“We went out there like we were playing a district game,” Moore said. “We were fussing at them about not playing up to the level of their ability. They saw the other team scoring and said, ‘Oh, no!'”

“They picked each other up and encouraged each other.”

WSM is experienced, having brought back the entire roster from last year’s quarterfinals team. In the 2022 playoffs, the ninth-seeded Wolfpack defeated Welsh and St. Helena before running into top-seeded Amite, which went on to win the state title.

Kaitlin Druilhet scored nine points and Jaci Doucette added eight for WSM, which is still a young team. Druilhet and Terez Robertson are senior starters. Areanna St. Julien and Doucette are juniors. Blake and Brown are sophomores.

“Everybody on the floor contributed something to the win,” Moore said. “It may not be something other people notice, but I noticed.”