News Briefs
February 16, 2016
Roman Antoine Guidry
February 17, 2016
Ellender girls’ basketball coach Kenneth Dixon wanted his team to face-guard South Lafourche standout Traya Bruce in last Monday night’s regular season finale between the Lady Patriots and Lady Tarpons.
But they never did. Dixon said he changed his mind at the last minute and went with something else. South Lafourche won the game and Bruce scored with ease throughout the night.
“I’m a little bit slow,” Dixon said with a laugh. “It takes my hard head some time to commit to things.”
The coach didn’t change his mind on Thursday night in a district playoff rematch between the rival schools, and the persistence paid off.
The Lady Patriots kept Bruce and South Lafourche’s high-powered offense out of rhythm, which allowed Ellender to secure a win and the coveted power point that comes with being a district champion.
The Lady Patriots led from start-to-finish on Thursday night’s game, cruising to a fairly lopsided 75-56 win in a game that was played at a neutral site of Central Lafourche.
The contest was a necessity after both teams finished 9-1 in the district season (their losses coming against one another), which necessitated a playoff game to decide who the champion would be for playoff seeding.
Bruce scored 11 points – a sharp drop from the 24 she scored in Monday’s Lady Tarpons win. Dixon said his team’s defense on the sophomore guard was the key to the victory.
“I should have focused our defense on her since the first time we played them, but I didn’t. That’s my fault,” Dixon said. “Tonight, we wanted to make things tough on her, because, look, she’s such an outstanding player. She’s one of the best young guards I’ve seen, and I’ve been doing this a long time. We had to make it hard on her, because she is what makes them go. We did, and that allowed us to get done what we needed to tonight.”
A fast start helped, too.
In both of the prior meetings between the Lady Tarpons and Lady Patriots, South Lafourche controlled the early action, jumping to double-digit leads.
That wasn’t the case on Thursday, and it was Ellender who led from start-to-finish, rolling to a 14-8 first quarter lead and then a 32-26 edge at halftime, before blowing it open and dominating the second half.
Dixon said the early surge pleased him, because he was worried that the stage may be too big for Ellender.
After all, the 2015-16 Lady Patriots are a young bunch – the most youthful team in the Houma-Thibodaux area.
They’re led by seniors Sky Jasper and Kiara Jones and junior Nikkia Johnson, but overall have a roster that’s loaded with freshmen, including Terris McKay, Trastasia Hester and Morghan Frierson – all of whom enjoy big minutes in the Lady Patriots’ rotation.
Also big-time players for Ellender are a couple sophomores – Orieon James and Kira Coleman.
Jasper said the beginning of the year was interesting for the Lady Patriots because of the youth.
Ellender started the season 2-4 and was just 6-5 entering district play.
The inexperience didn’t bother the team at all on Thursday night – much like it didn’t bother the team in the final 45 days of the season, a stretch that saw Ellender rebound from the early struggles to win 11 out of 12 games.
“At the beginning of the season, it was a little different because a lot of the people playing didn’t have much experience,” Jasper said. “But we’ve stuck together and stayed with one another. Right now, I think we’re playing really well. We want to keep pushing for playoff time.”
“I’m proud. I’m so proud of the kids,” Dixon added. “This is a really young team. Young, but talented. They’ve worked hard and they’ve done what we’ve asked them to. They’re young, and it is frustrating at times to deal with. But we see the flashes of how good it can be.
“And lately, those flashes have been happening a little more often.”
The Lady Patriots will be home in the opening round of the Class 4A State Playoffs – a game that will be played Thursday night at the House of Pain.
The brackets were released on Monday night and were not available at press-time.
The Lady Tarpons, too, will be at home on Thursday.
Their coach Rainie Terrebonne commended Ellender on the win and said her team will not panic about the loss.
“It’s not a huge deal for us,” Terrebonne said. “We’re going to respond and overcome it. We’re the District Co-Champions. We just missed out on that power point we could have gotten by winning this game. But our ladies are not done fighting yet. We will be ready for the playoffs.”
ELSEWHERE IN THE HOUMA-THIBODAUX AREA
The Lady Tarpons and Lady Patriots will have local company in the playoffs.
In Class 5A, Thibodaux will be in the field after posting a 16-10 regular season with a 7-5 mark in district play.
The Lady Tigers will enter the tournament hot, having won three out of their past four games. But they will be seeded somewhere in the 20s, which will put them on the road in the opening round.
In Class 3A, E.D. White will be at home to start the playoffs after a dominant regular season. The Lady Cardinals were 25-2 in the regular season and shared the District 8-3A Title with Erath – a team they split the season series with.
The other team to beat E.D. White was Houma Christian, and the Lady Warriors are among the favorites in Class 1A.
Houma Christian is expected to be a Top 10 seed after going 23-7 in the regular season. The Lady Warriors aren’t just beating smaller schools like themselves, either. They’ve won eight games against Class 5A teams on the season, including victories over Hahnville, Higgins, Central Lafourche, Dominican, Helen Cox, Walker and H.L. Bourgeois.
The Lady Warriors also lost by just one point on Dec. 5 against Barbe – a team that’s 27-2 and is expected to compete for the state title. •
