Lady Rebels knock off Vermilion Catholic

MIDLAND – Things looked bleak for the Midland Lady Rebels heading into the fourth quarter and down by eight points in their showdown with Class 1A power Vermilion Catholic Monday evening.
The Lady Rebels (15-11) had been out rebounded for most of the contest and they had been unable to establish anything on the inside for the better part of three quarters.
All that changed in the final frame.
The Lady Rebels pounded the ball inside to forward Macy Hoffpauir and she came through with eight of her 12 points in the final eight minutes to help rally Midland to a 44-39 come-from-behind victory over the Lady Eagles.
“Macy fades away a little too much when she gets underneath and she loses some confidence; but, finally, in the fourth quarter, she came alive,” said MHS coach Amanda Fontenot. “Kristen (Breaux) was on the bench in foul trouble and we had to go into her (Hoffpauir) and she went to work. She started making some strong moves straight to the basket and it worked well for us and it opened up some other things.”
Hoffpauir sank a pair of free throws at the end of the third quarter to cut the lead to 34-26 and Bethany LeJeune dropped in a jumper from the corner to start the final frame to get the Lady Dogs within six (34-28).
From there, Hoffpauir added another bucket in the lane and Brooke Comeaux had back-to-back layups to tie the game at 34-34.
The Lady Eagles took a brief two-point lead on a layup of their own before Hoffpauir scored six straight points to give the Lady Rebels some breathing room.
With just over a minute remaining, the smallest player on the court, Hannah Credeur, came up with possibly the biggest rebound of the game when she pulled down a board after a missed shot by VC’s Ashailee Brailey. After being fouled on the rebound, LeJeune inbounded the ball under the Lady Eagles’ goal and threw a homerun pass to a streaking Comeaux for an easy layup to put Midland up by six 42-36.
“Hannah is small, but she works really, really hard and she’s tough and that’s why she plays as a freshman; she’s only 5-foot,” said Fontenot of Credeur. “She had the boxout on that last board and that was big.
“And the homerun pass was big for us because it was a big morale booster and it stretched the lead to six and made it possible to for us to give up a shot without it killing the game for us.”
Brailey did hit another shot for the Lady Eagles and it was a 3-pointer, cutting the Lady Rebels’ lead to three (42-39) with 13 seconds remaining.
But Comeaux put the game away seconds later with a pair of free throws.
The loss dropped the Lady Eagles, who are in the No. 2 spot in the Class 1A power ratings, to 15-4 on the year.
“This was a big victory for us,” said Fontenot. “We needed this for a couple of reasons, one being the power points. But we also needed it just for the momentum because we had just dropped a game to Lacassine (Friday) that was tough.
“In the past, one of problems has been that we would dig ourselves a hole at some point in the game, much like we did tonight, and we haven’t been able to dig out of it.
“Tonight, it was different and I think it is an important mark for our team that we came back from eight points with Kristen in foul trouble and on the bench. I finally feel like we crossed over a hump that we haven’t been able to get over previously.”
The Lady Rebels had five players contribute points in the victory with Comeaux leading the way. She also had eight points in the fourth quarter and finished the night with 16 points. Breaux followed with eight points, including two 3-pointers in the first quarter, before fouling out with just under three minutes remaining in the game.
LeJeune added five points for the Lady Rebels and Nicole Kraut had three.
Brailey led all scorers on the night with 18 points.
The Lady Rebels return to action on Friday when they play host to league rival Bell City.