Lady K's upend Iota

LONGVILLE – The game plan was there but unfortunately for the Iota Lady Bulldogs, the execution wasn’t.
The Lady Dogs struggled through the middle quarters Friday and it proved costly in a stunning 58-44 loss to South Beauregard.
The loss, their first in league play, leaves Iota (19-9) and South Beauregard in a deadlock atop the District 4-3A standings with each team sitting at 7-1.
“They (South Beauregard) made the adjustments they needed to make and we didn’t,” said Iota coach Meghann LeJeune. “Everything that we worked on the last couple of days at practice, they didn’t do it. We just never gave ourselves a chance.”
The Lady Dogs went toe-to-toe with the Lady K’s in the opening quarter and trailed just 13-11.
But then, things went south.
The Lady K’s went on a 14-0 run in the first four minutes of the quarter behind nine points from senior forward Katherine Knox and suddenly the score was 27-11.
The Lady Dogs outscored the Lady K’s 9-6 over the final four minutes to cut the margin some, but they went into the half trailing 33-20.
“We dug ourselves a hole at the beginning of the second quarter and we just didn’t have the fire and the spirit to dig ourselves out,” said LeJeune. “When we had a chance to come back, we just gave up every opportunity.”
The 13-point halftime deficit was a culmination of solid play by the Lady K’s and rushed passes by the Lady Dogs that resulted in 14 first half turnovers.
“We played scared,” said LeJeune. “We got flustered with their press even though it wasn’t something that was drastically different than what we’ve seen before.”
The Lady Dogs cut back on the turnovers in the third quarter, but they failed to get much of anything going offensively. They scored just four points in the frame on a bucket in the lane and a pair of free throws, all from Jillian Boone, and found themselves trailing 44-24 heading into the fourth quarter.
“We couldn’t get anything to fall in the third quarter,” said LeJeune. “We just never found our groove. We played so out of control the entire game and we just never were able to settle in.”
The Lady Dogs finally got going in the fourth quarter and outscored the Lady K’s 20-14, but the early deficit was too much to overcome.
“The last six minutes was probably the best we played throughout the whole entire game,” said LeJeune. “And we were doing something that we haven’t even worked on. But the things we worked on all week, the tools we gave them to win this game, we didn’t do any of them.
“It’s just disappointing because we were complacent and we didn’t do the things that we needed to do.”
Brittany Johnson and Boone paced the Lady Dogs’ offense with 13 and 12 points, respectively. Becca Fantroy came off the bench and pitched in seven points; Taylor DeVille scored five; Cambri St. Andre had four and Whitney Landry had three.
Knox poured in 14 points for the Lady K’s while Kathryn Manuel had 11 and Shanna Barrow had nine.
The Lady Dogs return to action on Tuesday when they play host to St. Louis. They will travel to Lake Charles to take on St. Louis again on Thursday.
Should Iota win both of those games, the Lady Dogs would then have to play South Beauregard on Saturday at a neutral site to determine the outright district champion.