LAFAYETTE — After seeing his team run out of the gym Tuesday night in its opening round loss to Archbishop Rummel in the St. Thomas More Sunkist Shootout, Catholic High coach Josh Guilbeau was a little more pleased Wednesday afternoon as his Panthers grabbed an early lead and cruised to a 57-41 win over Westminster Christian Academy in the consolation bracket of the Sunkist.

Ja’Vaughan Narcisse had 20 points, including six 3-pointers, and Kaiden Burgess added 12 as Catholic High jumped out to an 18-8 first quarter lead and slowly pulled away from there against the Crusaders.

“Rummel is a pretty good team,” Guilbeau said. “We played pretty good for two quarters yesterday and we put together a whole game today.

“We wanted to up the tempo early in the game and we came out with a little bit of pressure, which I thought helped us get into our offense and we shot the ball really, really well in the first half. When we’re able to do that, we can be a pretty solid team.”

While it may not have been a great shooting performance for CHS, it was more than effective as the Panthers hit four 3-pointers in the first quarter —

Narcisse had three of them — and twomore in the second quarter against the Crusaders, who just couldn’t match Catholic High’s firepower from outside. WCA did more than enough damage inside with Ken Jones, who finished with 12 points, all of them from inside the paint.

But Wednesday’s game was about Catholic High’s response after the Panthers were blown out 73-40 Tuesday night by the Class 5A Raiders, and CHS responded well on both sides of the court.

“Defensively I thought we played well today but it was about all our seniors who stepped up, Ja’Vaughan Narcisse in particular, and it helped us get back into the win column,” said Guilbeau.

The Panthers team improved to 8-8 on the season and will play Ben Franklin today at 1:30 p.m. in the consolation bracket semifinals.

Micah Hulin had 9 points and Semaj Flugence added 8 for Catholic High, which led 32-17 at halftime and 46-32 at the end of the third quarter Wednesday.

While the offense shot well and the defense held WCA in check for most of the game, it was another area where the Panthers really impressed Guilbeau.

“First and foremost I thought we did well rebounding the ball today,” the CHS coach said. “Boxing out on one end and not letting them get second-chance points and getting the offensive rebound when we could.

“That was one thing that I was really, really happy with today. Combine that with how we shot the ball in the first half and it was an A-plus day.”

Braylin Henry led the Crusaders with 15 points. It was the third time this season that WCA and Catholic High met on the basketball court. Catholic High beat the Crusaders 60-44 in the Ascension Episcopal Tournament on Nov. 22 and 64-59 in a game in Opelousas on Dec. 8.

Guilbeau said that playing in STM’s tournament gives his team a chance to play against competition that they normally wouldn’t play during the year.

“Even though we’ve beaten Westminster a couple of times this year, but Rummel is a solid (Class) 5A team out of New Orleans and Ben Franklin is another good team out of New Orleans,” the CHS coach said. “It’s just some competition that gets us battle-prepared for when district rolls around.”

ESA 41, Newman 32

In the first round of the tournament Tuesday, Cole McKay had four 3-pointers as ESA beat Newman. The Falcons had seven long-distance baskets against the Greenies as ESA rallied from a 15-12 halftime deficit and outscored Newman 29-17 in the second half for the win.

Individual scoring wasn’t available.

ESA played Class 5A No. 1 ranked St. Augustine in the tournament quarterfinals Wednesday.