Lady Dogs slip past Caldwell Parish

IOTA – It wasn’t necessarily their best game of the season but, in the end, it was enough.
Despite struggling with consistency and turnovers most of the night, the Iota Lady Dogs were finally able to knock off  No. 18 seed Caldwell Parish, 51-44, in a Class 3A Bi-District clash Thursday.
“We just never got comfortable in an offense; our defense wasn’t very good and we turned the ball over a lot,” said Iota coach Meghann LeJeune, whose team will hit the road for the second round on Monday when they will take on No. 2 Ville Platte at 6:30 p.m.
“I mean, we were making perfect passes to the defense. It just wasn’t a clean game.”
  Fortunately, the Lady Dogs did the little things that they needed to do to get by.
“The effort was there and the last few games, the Lady Dogs’ fight has been there ... and we didn’t give up.”
The key for the Lady Dogs was their rebounding and their free throw shooting.
On the night, they pulled down 45 rebounds, mostly offensive, and knocked down 15 of their 18 attempts from the charity stripe. That alone helped offset a dismal 30 percent shooting effort from the floor.
“We rebounded well and we shot free throws well and I think that is the only reason we won the game,” said LeJeune, whose team led by just three points with a minute to go in the contest.
The Lady Dogs didn’t have any problems in the first quarter, however.
Mallory Faul poured in three 3-pointers and Whitney Landry scored six points to help the Lady Dogs take a 19-9 advantage.
The game came to a crawl in the second quarter as the two teams combined for just 13 points with the Lady Dogs taking a 26-15 lead at the break.
“We hit three 3-pointers in the first quarter and then we just stopped shooting,” said LeJeune. “They (Caldwell) didn’t really make any adjustments on defense, but we didn’t continue to do the things that were successful for us.”
The action picked back up in the third quarter and Caldwell was able to cut the lead to 40-31 courtesy of a staggering press and some Iota miscues.
“We just kept repeating the same mistakes over and over,” said LeJeune. “They pressed us a little bit and rather than being prepared and being in our press-break offense like we had practiced, I had some people doing one thing and other people doing another thing.”
Caldwell went on another run in the fourth quarter and cut the lead to four late in the frame before the Lady Dogs were finally able to put the game away at the free throw line.
Faul and Landry paced the Lady Dogs with 15 and 13 points, respectively. Each player also pulled down 11 rebounds as well.
“Mallory and Whitney really crashed the boards well for us,” said LeJeune. “They got those hustle and effort plays and they worked really hard to get those rebounds.
“The fact that they rebound the ball so well is key and I can’t ask for more than that.”
Cambri St. Andre followed with eight points; Becca Fantroy added seven and Alexis St. Andre and Madeline Gatte each  had two.
Taylor DeVille also played a huge role in the victory despite not scoring. She pulled down six rebounds and altered a number of shots in the lane all night long.
“Taylor really did a good job on the boards and she’s such a huge presence inside,” said LeJeune.