Crucial free throws in overtime gave NISH the win.

If onlookers didn’t know that the NISH basketball team was competing for their first ever state finals appearance, they could be forgiven for thinking that the Yellow Jackets were already experienced champions during their semifinal contest against No. 4 Walker.

After all, it isn’t often that teams are able to battle back from an early nine-point deficit, but that’s exactly what the Yellow Jackets did as they staged a dramatic come-from-behind 47-43 victory in overtime.

“I don’t know that we ever led until the fourth quarter or in overtime,” said NISH head coach Chad Pourciau. “This is us, I don’t know how we do it but we find a way.”

Coming into the semifinals, Walker had defeated its previous two opponents by 74 points each. Pourciau said that his team knew that the Wildcats would want to speed the game up and utilize the whole court, so his team made it their focus to limit what Walker could do and slow the game down in NISH’s favor.

“I felt that we finally got control of the game late and they really want to get up and down the court and we want to make it a half-court basketball game,” Pourciau explained. “We felt like we were better there and that’s why we beat them in overtime, because we made it a half-court basketball game.”

There was no better demonstration of NISH’s ability to dictate the tempo of a game than the opening minutes of overtime. Out of the four allotted minutes, NISH burned up over half of the time passing the ball around the Walker perimeter and waiting for the Wildcats to make any mistake before capitalizing on it.

Pourciau said that his team is adaptable to any opposition and can always find a way to grind out a win.

“This team can play multiple ways,” he said of the Yellow Jackets. “We like to play fast and if we play somebody that likes to grind it out, we want to play fast and we’re going to get up and down and play in the 70s. If we play somebody that wants to make it a track meet, we can slow it down and play slow and ugly like some people say. This team is built to play a lot of different ways and I think it gives us an advantage.”

“We said if it was in the 40s or 50s, we felt like they were in trouble. We won 47-43 in overtime.”

The victory in overtime came down to accurate free throw shooting, a stat that has haunted NISH since crashing out of the playoffs last season on a missed free throw.

We always get to the line, always, we just don’t shoot them well,” Pourciau said of his team. “I think we shoot 58% as a team, which is horrible, and we went 72% tonight. You can ask the team, we’ve been shooting them every day this week because we knew how important it was.”

“In the fourth quarter and in overtime, Wayne (Randall-Bashay) was perfect, Austin (Delahoussaye) was perfect and C-Dub (Christian Walker) missed one because I told him to miss it.”

“Last year, our season ended on a free throw,” said senior Christian Walker. We made it a focus this year to shoot free throws a lot and at a better percentage and it helped us to win the game.”

NISH also dominated in several key areas of the game, including rebounds and turnovers.

“We talked about turnovers, we had 10 in the game and they had 16,” Pourciau said. “We talked about offensive rebounds, we held them to six and we had 13. We talked about shooting free throws better, we went 72%. Everything we asked them to do, they did, and that’s why we won.”

Junior forward Wayne Randall-Bashay ended the game with a double-double against Walker, scoring 16 points and collecting 10 rebounds. Senior guards Christian Walker (9 points, 8 rebounds), Kylan Dugas (7 points, 4 rebounds) and Austin Delahoussaye (11 points, 4 assists) also contributed to the win.

As the Yellow Jackets head into the finals on Saturday, their inexperience on the big stage will be aided by their tough schedule this season that has paired NISH with some of the best talent in the state.

“We prepared ourselves for this run,” Pourciau said. “We went to Liberty, to Ponchatoula. We played Catholic of New Iberia who was in the Top-28. We played Northwood Lena who was in the Top-28. When we lost in the quarterfinals last year, we cried in the locker room and said that we would remember what this feels like because next year we weren’t going to end up short.”

With their ticket punched to the finals for the first time in school history, Pourciau said that the team has finally broken a curse that has lasted for years.

“New Iberia has been a basketball town,” he said. “We’ve been in the Top-8 for the past six years, we just haven’t been able to break through. I want to give these guys credit. They’ve all been playing together since the fifth or sixth grade, so this started long before I got here and I just caught the back end of it. This has been building, I’m just continuing the foundation of what has already been made. I’m just putting the finishing touches on it.”

NISH’s final test of the season will be a familiar foe in Ponchatoula High School, who the Yellow Jackets defeated 66-55 in the second game of the season.

Pourciau said that he thinks the first matchup might have been deceptively easy, and is looking forward to one final battle with his team on Saturday.

We beat them by 10 at their place but they’re a good basketball team and we caught them early,” he said. “They played a ridiculous schedule too, so they dropped a few games early and I think they’ve won 19 or 20 of their last games. We’re going to have our hands full but we’re going to enjoy this.”

As for what his message has been to his team ahead of the final, Pourciau said it’s all about being themselves and making New Iberia proud.

“Everybody is excited, this is the first state championship in NISH history that we’re going to play for. We’ve been to the semis four times and never played in the finals, so credit to these kids and coaches, we’re making history. Like I told them, we’re there, we might as well go win the thing.”