Local 4A district taking fold

There is still a lot of basketball to be played, yes.

But the District 7-4A girls’ basketball race is starting to clearly take shape in the early weeks of the district season.

After a couple district playing dates, it’s the Ellender Lady Patriots who have stormed out of the pack in firm control of the league — thanks to an 8-game winning streak over the past several weeks.

The Lady Patriots are tied with Assumption at the top of the standings — both teams with undefeated records at press-time. South Lafourche and Vandebilt trail behind — each with just a loss in the league.

But the Lady Patriots likely have an edge because of their strength of schedule so far at press-time.

Ellender has already beaten South Terrebonne and South Lafourche — two top contenders for the title and Top 10 teams in the state.

Assumption still has to play the Lady Tarpons and Lady Gators, as well as a date at Ellender on Feb. 5 and a meeting with Vandebilt to close out the year.

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LADY PATRIOTS’ DEFENSE SPARKS WINS

For Ellender, it was a total team effort in the past week to grab control of the league.

The Lady Patriots played smothering defense last Tuesday night to beat South Terrebonne 38-23 in Bourg.

The Lady Gators had several clean shots at the basket early in the game, but couldn’t convert, which allowed Ellender some early separation and a key road win.

That win set the stage for a high-stakes matchup on Friday against South Lafourche in the House of Pain — a game the Lady Patriots won 57-42 to improve to 3-0 in the league.

It was a total team effort that allowed Ellender to conquer their district rivals, who had beaten them earlier in the season.

Early in the game, senior guard Terris McKay was doing most of the heavy lifting, scoring several early 3-point field goals to allow the Lady Patriots to lead 14-11 at the end of the first quarter, then 27-18 at halftime.

In the second half, South Lafourche better shaded their defense toward McKay, which allowed the rest of the Lady Patriots to start to shine. That extra attention allowed Trastasia Hester, Mya Steward and Carly Anderson to make plays on the perimeter to further extend the defense.

Hester’s penetration and constant pressure also opened up pitch and kick offense for Tanisha Hester and J’Lisha Holly on the inside, which allowed the Lady Patriots to balloon their lead to 44-27 at the end of the third quarter.

“To be honest, our main focus was just to win because South Lafourche did beat us in the previous game, so we wanted revenge,” Anderson said. “We came out strong in our defense and that’s what we were mainly focused on.”

The Lady Tarpons showed fight late.

Makayla Bynum, Sierra Lerille, Evan Duet and a host of other players used energy on both ends of the floor to cut Ellender’s lead to 13 or 15 points several times in the fourth quarter.

But for every small surge the Lady Tarpons made, Ellender had an answer, which secured the hard-fought home win — another goal checked off the list for a Lady Patriots team that continues to play its best basketball.

“Our major goal this year is to win state,” Trastasia Hester said. “Being that we’re coming together and getting our wins back up, we definitely want to make it to state — period.”

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DIXON OUT WITH ILLNESS

Ellender’s rise to the top of the district is even more impressive because they’re doing it without their longtime head coach.

Coach Kenneth Dixon has been out since the start of 2019 with an illness, according to a source close to the Lady Patriots’ program.

In Dixon’s absence, Ellender is being coached by Gus Brown — a veteran coach who was once the head girls’ basketball coach at Terrebonne.

Players said the team is competing hard for the veteran, championship-winning coach.

“We all miss Coach Dixon,” she said. “When he was here, our record wasn’t so great, so we’re just doing this for him and making him proud and showing him and everybody on the outside looking in that we’re going to win — if he is here or not.”

“We are very motivated to do this for him,” Hester added. “Ever since he’s been gone, every win has been for him and everything we have upcoming will be for him. He’s definitely missed.”

Ellender girls

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