Lady Tarpons battling after difficult week

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The South Lafourche girls’ basketball team failed its ‘Exam Week.’

Now, the Lady Tarpons know what they have to study before entering the push for postseason play.

The Lady Tarpons entered this past week in control of their district championship destiny with a 5-1 record in league play.

But after being blasted by powerhouses Destrehan and Thibodaux this week – losses by a combined 61 points, South Lafourche is now turning its attention away from the district title and toward the future.

More specifically, the Lady Tarpons want to learn from their mistakes of the past seven days and become a better basketball team as playoff time rolls around this spring.

“We are not down at all (after the touch week),” South Lafourche girls’ basketball coach Rainie Stevens said. “We told the girls that from here on out, we need to play every game like it’s the last game of the season. Our team has heart.”


To get to the next level of competition, South Lafourche has to learn to break pressure defense over four-straight quarters of play.

Both the Lady Wildcats and Lady Tigers utilize a full-court pressure scheme designed to create unforced errors and easy baskets.

At times, South Lafourche handles the pressure with ease, scoring easy layups or getting the ball across the timeline to run half-court offense.

But more often than Stevens would like, the end result of the team’s press break is a tempo much faster than the Lady Tarpons are comfortable playing.

Against Thibodaux, South Lafourche fell behind by nine points early – a deficit caused because of more than a half-dozen first quarter turnovers.

In the beginning of the second quarter, the Lady Tarpons controlled the pace and played a slower game. With that pace, South Lafourche got easy buckets and scored the first 11 points of the quarter to take back the lead.


But in the final minutes of the quarter, the turnovers returned and the Lady Tigers enjoyed a halftime advantage – a lead that grew significantly in a lopsided second half.

Against Destrehan three days prior, the script was the same, as turnovers led to easy Lady Wildcats’ buckets in a rout.

“All we can do (better) is make teams play our game,” Stevens said. “We need to control the tempo of the game.”

But through a tough week and despite the team’s 0-3 record against powers Destrehan and Thibodaux, Stevens believes that the Lady Tarpons have the locker room leadership to push forward and grow.

A first-year head coach in the program, Stevens routinely goes out of her way to mention the chemistry the team has within its locker room – a bond that she thinks will overcome any adversity that comes within a season.

“I’ve very honored to coach this group of young ladies,” Stevens said. “They are awesome young ladies – both on and off the court.”


Talent helps, too.

South Lafourche has a talented roster with players capable of harming a defense on a given night.

Guard Caroline Guilbeau anchors the Lady Tarpons’ offensive hopes, routinely leading the team in scoring.

Guilbeau owns the ability to score from the perimeter with a smooth jumper. But she also can penetrate the lane and score inside around the basket. If unable to finish, Guilbeau has a knack for finding the free throw line.

If the young guard needs a boost, teammates Savannah LeBlanc and Fallon Chiasson are among others capable of pitching in double digits to aid the Lady Tarpons’ efforts.

“This is a team effort – 100 percent,” Stevens said. “We have a team of young ladies here who are all united for a common goal. Everyone works together and gives their best effort so that we can continue to grow and get better as a team.”


The schedule is about to tilt back in the Lady Tarpons’ favor, as well – that helps, too.

After the hellacious week with Destrehan and Thibodaux (two teams with a combined 37-5 record), South Lafourche is free from the elites of district play for a few weeks.

The Lady Tarpons played a road tilt with Hahnville last night with a score unavailable at press-time. South Lafourche trumped the Lady Tigers 57-32 in the teams’ first meeting of the season.

From there, the team will play East St. John, Terrebonne, Central Lafourche and H.L. Bourgeois – all teams the Lady Tarpons defeated in the opening round of district play.

The season ends on Feb. 13 with round two against Destrehan – a game that isn’t likely to have district championship implications any longer.

But it will provide Stevens and her ladies another chance to take the big test.


The next time, they hope to earn a passing grade.

“We played against two great teams this week,” Stevens said. “Both of those teams can shoot lights out from the outside, and when you cover the outside, they find their people inside.

“We’ve just got to get better. We’ve got to play the way we’re capable of playing.”

South Lafourche post player LaQuisha Degree makes a move in the post during the Lady Tarpons’ game with Destrehan last Tuesday in the South Lafourche gymnasium. After entering last week with district championship aspirations, the Lady Tarpons fell to the Lady Wildcats and Thibodaux. The losses have re-focused the Lady Tarpons, who now aim to peak before postseason play.

CASEY GISCLAIR | TRI-PARISH TIMES