Senior guard Austin Delahoussaye had 11 points against the Tigers. 

It was New Iberia Senior High’s longest stretch of road games since the Christmas break.

Last week, NISH had three road games starting with Lafayette Christian Tuesday, followed by a two hour road trip to Sulphur on Friday and then at crosstown rival Westgate less than 24 hours later.

When the dust settled, the Jackets went 3-0 as New Iberia beat WHS 71-36 Saturday night to improve to 23-4 overall with four games left in the regular season. As of Monday morning, the Jackets were No. 3 in the Non-Select Division I power rankings, just .003 behind No. 2 Ponchatoula (40.77-40.74).

“We needed it, we needed it bad,” NISH coach Chad Pourciau said after the win over Westgate. “We got three big wins on the road. LCA was 21-1 at the time, we took the two hour road trip to Sulphur and won and turn around on a back-to-back and get a 30 point win.”

“Three road games, three wins, we’ll take it every time.”

Coming off of a 30 point win over Sulphur on Friday, NISH didn’t show any signs of fatigue against Westgate.

New Iberia jumped out to a big lead over the Tigers early in the game and never looked back as the Jackets took control as Westgate fell to 3-11 on the season with four games left to play.

“You always worry about the energy level on the team on a back-to-back, especially after going on a two-hour trip to play,” Pourciau said. “We didn’t play well tonight but we played well enough to win.”

“What I love about this team is that any given night it will be a different guy to step up. Everybody talks about Wayne (Randal Bashay) and Austin (Delahoussaye) but really it’s the other guys who had been making shots and playing good defense that has helped us to win.”

Against Westgate, Otis Anderson led the way with 14 points while Delahoussaye and Devon Frank each had 11 points.

NISH finishes out the home part of its schedule this week as the Jackets play host to Sam Houston Tuesday before a key district contest Friday against Southside and former NISH head coach Todd Russ. New Iberia then finishes the season with two road games over the Mardi Gras break.

Westgate has a home game against Northside Tuesday and a road game at North Vermilion Thursday before closing with two games next week.