The seniors on Loreauville High’s boys basketball team had never won against Catholic High before Friday’s District 7-2A game at CHS. 

With 3:21 remaining in the first half, it appeared the Panthers would continue that streak when Jacob Minvielle scored on a put-back for a 29-13 lead. 

The Tigers, however, scored the final 12 points of the second quarter to get within 29-25 at the half. CHS maintained the lead early in the second half, even expanding it to 41-31 on a Joab Trosclair lay-up with just over two minutes left in the third quarter.

Again, Loreauville went on a run, scoring the next seven points to tie the game at 44-44 on Vaschon Blount’s 3-pointer with 6:17 remaining. Jaiden Mitchell gave CHS its final lead on a long 3-pointer with 2:23 to go. 

Texas Tech football signee Dylan Singleton put the Tigers ahead to stay (48-47) with a 3-pointer with two minutes remaining. Hayden Benoit followed with a 3, his only field goal, and Kylon Polk and Pharell Nora added free throws in a 57-53 win. 

“It was a great win for us,” LHS coach Darrell Caesar said. “The seniors finally got over the hump (against CHS). If we played defense, I knew we’d have a chance. In our last game, we stopped playing defense when we missed a shot.”

Singleton (nine points) and Benoit (five points) missed their first 12 shots from the field but came through when needed for the Tigers (15-7, 4-2 in District 7-2A). 

“I was off tonight,” Benoit said. “It wasn’t a great night, but it was a big clutch moment. When I shot it, I knew it was going in. It was open. I couldn’t pass it up.”

Nora led the Tigers with 17 points. Blount, who scored 16, made all six of his field goal attempts with two 3-pointers. Nora made 5 of 6 free throws in the second half. 

“I thought Blount kept us in the game when we were in a slump,” Caesar said of the senior, whose 3 at the buzzer reduced the Panthers’ lead to 22-9 at the end of the first quarter.

“He made shots when we needed them. He was very clutch. I’m very proud of him for that.”

The Panthers (16-9, 6-1) had a six-game winning streak snapped. Mitchell, who finished with 24 points (9 of 15 FG) with seven 3-pointers, scored nine in the first quarter. 

“The same way we win, we have to lose,” CHS coach Dylan Vincent said. “We hit a game-winner against Franklin and partied like it was the 1980s. Loreauville came to play. They played hard. They treated it like a championship game and won.”

“We’re still going to win the district. We’re still going to win state. Tonight, we lost our composure. We played too fast. That’s been our MO this whole season. We lost to Catholic-Baton Rouge because we played too fast. We lost to Liberty because we played too fast. We have to control the tempo better.”

Trosclair and Karon Eugene scored eight points apiece for CHS, which is No. 5 in the Division III select power ratings. Chris Green had five points. 

Polk added six points, and Blaise Romero had four for Division III nonselect No. 9 Loreauville, which hosts Division IV nonselect No. 2 Franklin Senior High (19-5, 6-2) on Tuesday for Senior Night. 

“This is a really tough district,” Caesar said. “There are some great teams. Catholic High is a great team. West Saint Mary is a great team. Franklin is a great team. You have to play well, night in and night out.

“It was fun tonight. It’s always fun when you win.”

CHS has district games remaining against West St. Mary (14-8, 3-4) and Houma Christian (9-11, 1-5) and a non-district game vs. St. Martinville (14-16). 

Loreauville closes the regular season at West St. Mary on Feb. 21.