New Iberia hands Lady Pios first loss of season

It was indeed a thriller in Crowley Thursday night.

The Notre Dame Lady Pios suffered their first loss of the season Thursday night at the hands of 3-5A’s New Iberia Lady Yellowjackets in quadruple overtime.

The Lady Yellowjackets’ 85-78 victory gave New Iberia its 12th win of the season and kept the Lady Yellowjackets’ undefeated season in tact. Notre Dame, meanwhile fell for the first time season, dropping to 5-1.

It took 36 total overtime points from the Lady Yellowjackets to edge out the Lady Pioneers, who mustered 29 in the four overtimes.

“The girls played their hearts out,” said Lady Pios Coach Nolan Theriot. “It was a great game and with two heavyweights going in, someone had to walk out with a loss, but there’s nothing fun about losing.”

Still, Theriot believes the game will have some residual benefits down the road.

“We’ll definitely learn from this. We can’t simulate that kind of intensity in practice, so we’ll get a lot out of it. 

“This wasn’t both teams sitting in zones and letting the others score, it was two teams working hard and fighting for every point they got.”

A true, back and forth contest, New Iberia took the early lead after the first quarter (14-11). But in the second quarter, Notre Dame responded with a 14-9 quarter, giving the home team a narrow two point lead at the half (25-23).

In the third quarter, the Lady Pioneers edged ahead of the visiting Lady Yellowjackets a little more, turning a 11-8 third quarter into a five point lead.

However, in the fourth it was New Iberia with the edge and the 18-13 quarter was enough to draw the score even at 49 each.

“The biggest lead in the game was probably five points for either team and every time they edged ahead we had to reassert ourselves.”

For Theriot, one of the games’ biggest keys was free throws. While the Lady Pios shot nearly 53 percent from the line overall, Notre Dame missed more free throws in overtime than during the game. The Lady Yellowjackets, meanwhile, shot nearly 63 percent from the line. 

“If you make a free throw here or there in the game you don’t even need overtime,” he said.

In the first two overtimes, the Lady Pios took the lead and once again the Lady Yellowjackets charged back, in dramatic fashion in the second overtime, fitting for the thriller.

“There girl hits a three to tie it in the second overtime with two seconds left, while being double team,” said Theriot. 

Finally in the fourth overtime, the Lady Yellowjackets pulled away, this time, for good.

The Lady Pios’ were led by Madeline Lejeune with 20 points, Gabbie Romero with 16 points, Alex Miller with 15 points, Sam Lyons with 11 points, Elise Lebouef with nine points and Hannah Estay with seven points.

Notre Dame 63, Oakdale 49

Rebounding from a tough loss against Teurlings Catholic, earlier in the week, the Notre Dame Pioneers defeated Oakdale Thursday night 63-49.

“This was our best overall game of the season,” said Pioneers Coach Donald Brown.

What was only a six point lead for the Pioneers at the half (30-24), became a 14 point victory thanks in large part to defense, according to Adams.

“The key was Jacob Leleux doing a great job defensively,” he said. “We put him on Oakdale’s best player and kept him scoreless in the second half.”

Leading offensively for the Pioneers was Tre Milstead with 23 points and Hunter Meche for 18 points. Adding to the Pioneers’ performance were Leleux’s seven points, Clayton Johnson’s six points and Ethan Smith’s four points. 

Iota 68, South Plaquemines 37; Iota 63, Church Point 43

The Iota Bulldogs opened up action in the South Cameron Tournament with a 68-37 victory over the South Plaquemines Hurricanes Thursday night.

Garrett Reppond’s 23 points and Kyle Smith’s 15 points led the Bulldogs charge in the Bulldogs’ win. 

Iota’s 12-9 first quarter lead only grew as the game continued. In the second quarter it was Iota 23-11; the third, Iota 10-5; and the fourth, 23-12.

Other Bulldogs contributing were Zack Hebert with eight points, Triston Fontenot, Luke Reed and Steven Cooper, each with six points, and Curtis Antoine with four points.

The winning continued Friday night taking a 63-43 decision against Church Point.

In Friday’s contest Reppond once again led all Bulldogs with 14 points, however, he was closely followed by Antoine and Smith, who each had 13 points, and Reed with 11 points. Cooper, Hebert and Fontenot each added four points.

Just like against South Plaquemines, Iota jumped to a lead in the first and only grew its margin as the game continued. The Bulldogs held a lead of 14-8 after the first quarter, 31-23 after the second, 49-33 after the third and 63-43 as a final.

Leading the Bears was Jaylan Kelly with nine points, Alex Citizen with eight points, Kendrick Boast with seven points and Cainen Briscoe with six points.

The two tournament wins improved the Iota Bulldogs’ record to 6-4 on the year.

South Plaquemines fell to 1-6 after its loss to Iota. The Hurricanes also lost to Church Point (71-60) and Northside Christian  (63-53) in the tournament in games Thursday and Friday night.

Church Point fell to 2-5 after its loss to the Bulldogs.

The Bears loss to Northside Christian 63-50 Thursday afternoon, but defeated host South Cameron 82-42 Friday night.

No other statistics or scores were immediately available from the South Cameron Tournament.

Northside Christian 43, Ascension Episcopal 27

LAFAYETTE – Earlier this week, the Northside Christian School Lady Warriors traveled to Ascension Episcopal School and defeated the Lady Gators 43-27.

The win was Northside Christian’s third straight, improving the ladies’ record to 3-6. Ascension Episcopal fell to 3-7.

The Lady Warriors edged away from the Lady Gators 9-8 in the first quarter and continued to build on its lead in the second with another 9-5 performance.  The 18-13 halftime lead continued to grow in third with an offensive 16-9 burst and finally in the fourth, the Lady Warriors scored nine points and Lady Gators only scored five.

Three Lady Warriors contributed in their win over Ascension Episcopal, Madeline Gatte with 17 points, Madisyn Clement with 14 points and Brooke Stanford with 12 points.