NISH senior Kylan Dugas dribbles across midcourt. 

As the final seconds counted down, the crowd in the New Iberia Senior High boys gym started to realize just what they were witnessing and got appropriately louder and louder.

After all, it had been more than a generation since they had seen anything like this.

The NISH Yellow Jackets were headed back to the LHSAA’s version of the Final Four.

Wayne Randall-Bashay had a game-high 24 points and senior shooting guard Christian Walker added 14 as top-seed NISH pulled away in the final quarter to beat No. 8 seed Northshore 56-44 in the Non-Select Division I playoffs to advance to the LHSAA Marsh Madness State Basketball Tournament this week in Lake Charles.

“It means a lot,” Walker said “It means a lot to the city and it means a lot to us.”

“I told Coach (Chad Pourciau) after last year when we lost in the quarterfinals that we, the seniors, were going to get this team to the Top 28. I promised him that…and we did it.”

Walker, Randall-Bashay and the rest of the Jackets got the quarterfinal jinx out of the way and put New Iberia Senior High into the state tournament and a semifinal date with No, 4 seed Walker for the first time since the 1998-99 season when NISH went to the Cajundome and fell to St. Augustine in the semifinals.

“It’s been 24 years since NISH has been there,” Pourciau. “It’s the first time since the split of NISH and Westgate since we’ve been to the Top 28.”

“I’m so happy for these guys and what they were able to accomplish. I’m happy for the school, the community, for everyone associated with NISH for this to happen.”

The Jackets had been to the quarterfinals three times since that 98-99 season, twice on the road and last season at home and all three times came up short.

Friday night, despite the pressure of the situation and a spirited contest with a Northshore team that knocked the Jackets out of the playoffs two years ago, this year’s team wasn’t going to be denied their shot at history.

“We didn’t feel any pressure coming into the game,” Walker said. “We haven’t lost a home game all year. It was go in, keep out composure like we did since the beginning of the season and go for the kill.”

For Walker, it was vindication for a season in which he and other team members felt disrespect from the state basketball community.

“No one believed in us,” he said. “No one believed in us all year. They said we weren’t good, that we couldn’t do this.”

“We showed everyone.”

The game was almost anticlimactic.

NISH jumped out to a six point lead in the first quarter only to see Northshore go on a run and take a nine point lead in the second quarter. The Jackets closed the game before halftime, took a small lead in the third quarter and then closed it out in the fourth quarter for the 12 point win, which should have been considerably more.

“We missed 15 free throws tonight,” Pourciau said. “It we make even half of that, we’re looking at a 15, 20 point win.”

Northshore’s Kohen Rowbathem, the Panthers’ leading scorer this season, was held to 14 points, including six point from free throws, the majority of which came in the fourth quarter after NISH had built a comfortable eight point lead.

It was a testament to how hard NISH’s defense played.

“Everyone played well on defense, it was a team win tonight,” Pourciau said.

And now the Jackets turn their attention to the next goal on the list, a chance at the first basketball title in school history.

“We know that anything can happen we you get to the Top 28,” Pourciau said. “All year long we’ve said that we just wanted a chance to Be there and see what happens.”

“Now we have that chance.”