Lady Dogs slip past league leading Lady K's

IOTA – Meghann LeJeune knew heading into Friday’s showdown with league-leading South Beauregard that her Iota Lady Bulldogs would have to control the boards in order to be successful.
She also knew that they had to be on top of their game defensively.
As it turned out, they were both.
Led by senior forward Mallory Faul, the Lady Dogs pulled down 37 rebounds, 25 defensive, blocked seven shots and forced the Lady K’s into 19 turnovers to pull out a 42-37 victory and avenge one of their two district losses.
“To say this is a big victory is an understatement,” said LeJeune, whose team (16-11, 7-2) rounds out the regular season Tuesday at St. Louis. “I mean, that’s a good team and to hold them to 37 points is something.”
Holding the Lady K’s to well below their season average had a lot to do with eliminating second-chance points.
Faul played a huge role in that, pulling down 12 defensive rebounds and finishing with 17 on the night. She also scored 17 points and had four blocks and two assists.
“This was probably the best game I’ve seen Mallory play,” said LeJeune. “She has been consistently my best rebounder and my best post player, actually, and she’s a threat because she can knock down the three. Tonight, she came through huge.”
  The Lady Dogs’ performance was a contrast to the one two weeks ago when they lost at South Beauregard.
“I think a lot of the reasons we fell short against South Beauregard the first time is because we gave up way too many second shots and Mallory pretty much eliminated that by her self tonight,” said Lejeune.
Whitney Landry also got in on the action  and finished with 13 rebounds to go along with five points and two steals.
“I thought Whitney did a heck of a job out there tonight,” said LeJeune. “Her and Mallory really held down the paint.
“I think she was frustrated early because she wasn’t making a lot of her shots, but just her hustle... I mean she was all over the place.”
The two teams battled to an 8-8 tie at the end of the first quarter and they were deadlocked  again with just seconds to go before Ashlynn DeRouen’s 3-pointer at the buzzer gave the Lady K’s a 21-18 advantage at the break.
Faul poured in 10 points in the first two quarters in a half that saw the Lady Dogs hit just five of their 19 shot attempts from the floor.
“We didn’t make a lot of shots in the first half, but I think that was because we rushed a lot of shots,” said LeJeune. “I felt like the whole first half we rushed and the first shot we had, we would take and it wasn’t always the best shot.”
The Lady K’s hit the first bucket of the second half to push the lead to five (23-18) before the Lady Dogs went on a 6-0 run to go up 24-23.
Katy Chisholm answered with a bucket to give the Lady K’s a 25-24 lead midway through the frame before the Lady Dogs answered with another 6-0 run sparked by a pair of buckets from Madeline Gatte.
The Lady Dogs led by as many as six early in the fourth quarter before Chisholm cut the lead to 36-35 with just over three minutes remaining.
Once again, Iota responded.
Gatte, who scored six points and had five rebounds, two blocks and five assists, picked up a big rebound and scored on a putback and from there, the Lady Dogs closed out the game at the free throw line.
Fantroy scored nine points in the victory while Taylor DeVille had three and Cambri St. Andre had two.
Sissy Saucier paced the Lady K’s with 13 points.
“It was just a different team out there tonight as opposed to when we went over there (South Beauregard) and it was fun watching this,” said LeJeune. “I wish our offensive game would have been a little bit better, but as the old saying goes: ‘defense wins games’ and that proved true tonight.”