BALDWIN — Lost in all of West St. Mary’s sometime-offensive struggles is the Wolfpack’s stingy defense.

Catholic High showed it can play a little defense, too, in the Panthers’ showdown Monday night with District 6-2A co-leader WSM. CHS limited the Wolfpack to 2 points in the first quarter and 12 in the first half before West St. Mary rallied for a 39-37 win that came down to a missed 3-pointer at the final buzzer.

The win settled for the moment the district lead, at least until the two meet again at CHS on Feb. 10.

“Like I told the kids, it did nothing,” said WSM coach Donald Sanders after the home crowd erupted with joy following the win. “We’re 4-0, they’re 3-1. We still have to go to their place.”

And with four district games remaining for each team, the district championship is far from decided. 

“It’s not over yet,” said CHS coach Ross Rix. “We’re still in the hunt.”

WSM played its fourth straight tight district game, while CHS was in its second straight down-to-the-wire outing in district. The Wolfpack pulled away late to beat Delcambre by 16 points in its biggest margin of victory in district so far, with the other wins coming by 4, 3 and now 2 points.

“That’s been our story,” said Sanders. “We’re not going to blow anybody out. As long as we have 1 point more than the other team, we’re going to be all right.”

For the first half, it didn’t seem West St. Mary would ever score enough to win by a single point. CHS forced numerous turnovers in the opening quarter to take a 5-2 lead into the second quarter, then outscored the Wolfpack 11-10 in the second quarter for a 16-12 halftime lead.

WSM finally got rolling offensively in the third quarter with 16 points to more than double its first-half output, with 6-foot-7 twin towers D’Andre Gabriel and Jerald Hawkins contributing 5 and 4 points, respectively, in the quarter. But Hawkins picked up his third foul with 5:03 to go in the period and came out shortly thereafter.

“The first half we let them walk it up,” said Sanders of Catholic High’s control of the pace early. “I think by pressing, we made it our kind of game. We might’ve gotten a few more fouls (called on the Wolfpack) but we pushed the pace a little bit.”

The Wolfpack surged to a 28-24 lead heading into the fourth quarter on the strength of that 16-8 advantage in the quarter, but couldn’t shake the Panthers.

Nick Geoffroy’s 3-pointer with 6:54 to go tied it at 28-28 and the teams went back and forth for the next five minutes, with Glenn Marsh scoring 6 points and Hawkins 2 for the Wolfpack and Hebert scoring the Panthers’ next 7 points, giving CHS a 35-34 lead with 1:48 to go for the Panthers final lead.

Marsh sank a long 2-pointer with 1:39 to give the Wolfpack the lead again at 36-35, and Gabriel put in a baseline jumper to make it 38-35 with 59.5 seconds to go.

David Butler raced through the lane for a basket and foul with 43.4 seconds remaining, but missed the free throw after cutting the lead to 38-37 with the layin.

West St. Mary missed three straight free throws, including the front end of a one-and-one and both ends of a double bonus situation, over the next 28 seconds. Marsh then sank one of two free throws for a 39-37 lead with 5.2 seconds to go. CHS called a time out with 4.2 seconds left after  Tim  Granger made the rebound, and after inbounding the ball, Hebert missed a long 3-pointer at the final buzzer.

“No. 3 (Hebert), he’s a good shooter,” said Sanders. “He had me worried there for a while.”

Hebert led the Panthers with 17 points, going 7-for-10 at the free throw line. Geoffroy had 9 points, all on 3-point baskets, but no other player scored more than 6. 

Rix said his team played well defensively but was impatient on offense, especially compared to how it played against Loreauville in a 4-point win on Friday.

“I think it had something to do with their size,” said Rix. “We changed a couple of shots. Instead of going in and shooting it regularly, we were looking for the big guys.”

Marsh led the Wolfpack with 16 points. Hawkins and Gabriel had 7 each.

West St. Mary plays at Delcambre on Friday in a district game. CHS steps out of district to play host to Erath on Friday.

West St. Mary 54, Catholic High 17

The West St. Mary ladies limited Catholic High to single digit scoring in each quarter while scoring a minimum of 11 points in each quarter themselves to beat the Lady Panthers in a District 6-2A game Monday.

WSM took sole possession of first place in district with a 4-0 record (10-6 overall), while handing CHS (7-13 , 3-1) its first district loss.

CHS trailed 40-15 after three quarters but was outscored 16-2 in the final period, unable to effectively break the WSM press before the Wolfpack pulled back on defense with five minutes remaining.

Amber Joe single-handedly outscored the Lady Panthers with 19 points. Myla Dapremont added 9 points, Alexis Cross had 7, Kiristen Thomas finished with 6 and Gerianna Lyons and Sabrina Charatain had 5 each.

Lexi Landry led CHS with 8 points. Emily Pellerin had 4, Morgan Lahasky 3 and Allison Legendre 2.