Second half surge propels E.D. White past Lady Pios

THIBODEAUX – The Notre Dame Lady Pios had No. 6 seed E.D. White on the ropes Monday in a Class 3A regional playoff contest at the Lady Cardinals home gym.
The Lady Pios (20-9) battled the Lady Cardinals to a 22-22 tie at half after Hanna Esthay’s 3-pointer from past half court hit the front of the rim at the buzzer.
Everything was looking good for the Lady Pios at that point.
Then the second half started.
Esthay, the Lady Pios’ starting point guard, remained in the locker room after the half due to sickness and the Lady Cardinals took full advantage of the situation.
With Esthay out, the Lady Cardinals forced 10 third-quarter turnovers and went on an 11-4 run that enabled them to pull away for an eventual 50-38 victory.
“The worst thing to happen for us was halftime,” said Notre Dame coach Nolan Theriot. “We come out and Hanna is still in the locker room sick; so we start the half discombobulated. I think we panicked a little bit and I don’t think I ever really got them (Lady Pios) back under control.”
Esthay returned to the court late in the third quarter and hit a layup for the Lady Pios’ final two points of the frame.
“Hanna came out later in the third quarter and she played because she’s a trooper and she wasn’t going out like that. But she just wasn’t herself,” said Theriot.
It was the Lady Cardinals’ hounding defense that proved to be the determining factor in the second half. They forced 12 turnovers in the final two frames, most of which were converted into points.
“I can’t say enough about our defense,” said E.D. White coach Darin Fontz. “We got a ton of steals. The job was to limit them (Notre Dame) and I thought we did an awesome job defensively. That was the key.”
Michelle Riviere played a huge role in the Lady Cardinals’ success. She got her squad going with a steal and an easy layup to start the third quarter and she then sparked the Lady Cardinals in the fourth quarter by opening the final frame with a long-range 3-pointer to push the lead to 35-26.
The turn of events forced the Lady Pios out of their comfort zone and they had to abandon their zone defense and switch to man.
“They (E.D. White) ended up doing some good things and they put us in a position that we didn’t want to be in - we didn’t want to have to come out and play a man (defense),” said Theriot. “We didn’t really prepare to be losing in the fourth quarter and have to play a man in some kind of stall.”
The Lady Pios got within nine (41-32) midway through the frame, but they missed out on a pair of opportunities to close the gap when they missed the front end of a 1-and-1 and then blew an uncontested layup.
From there, the Lady Pios were forced to foul and send the Lady Cardinals to the line where they went 8-for-13 from the stripe down the stretch.
“We tried to extend the ballgame and I think the game would have been a lot closer had we not done that,” said Theriot. “But we’re not going to just lie down; we’re going to come out here and do the best we can. Unfortunately, the shots we needed to go in just didn’t and it seemed like everything they threw up went in.
“It’s just disappointing.  I just wish Hanna wouldn’t have gotten sick. I would have liked to see that team, with all our starters on the court, in the second half. We just were never at full steam in the second half.”
The Lady Pios scored just 16 points in the second half with six of those points coming from senior Elise LeBeouf. She led the Lady Pios with 12 points overall.
“I think Elise could have dominated in the paint if we could have just gotten her the ball more,” said Theriot. “I was trying to look for things that we could get, just to post her up.”
Madelyn LeJeune, the Lady Pios’ leading scorer on the season, followed with 11 points and Esthay finished with seven. Freshman forward Alyssa Williams added six points and Marcella Gossen had two.
Rivierre and Michae Jones paced the Lady Cardinals with 14 and 12 points, respectively. Avery Sanders also hit double figures with 11 points and Gabi LeBlanc had nine.
For Theriot, the overall season was a tremendous success considering the firepower he lost to graduation a year ago.
The second round loss, however, still stung.
“If you would have told me that we would have made it to the second round, I’d have taken that at the beginning of the year,” said Theriot. “Right now, it’s not good enough. I think the kids know that we should be in the quarterfinals. Not taking anything away from E.D. White, but this team was beatable. They are good, but they are a beatable ballclub and we just didn’t do what we needed to do.
“I’m just disappointed for the three seniors (Esthay, LeJeune and LeBeouf). It’s not a disappointing season by any stretch…20-9, we’ll take that. But to be able to finish things off by getting a home ballgame against a Top 3 team would have been just poetic.”