Playoffs storm on for local teams

TFAE honors local veteran, attorney with Honor of Distinction
February 27, 2019
Lady Terriers suffer rare drought in Title Match
February 27, 2019
TFAE honors local veteran, attorney with Honor of Distinction
February 27, 2019
Lady Terriers suffer rare drought in Title Match
February 27, 2019

The Ellender Memorial girls’ basketball team has had to deal with a lot this season — youth, the departure of a coach, a slow start and a brutally tough district.


But they’ve come out of it all stronger than ever and very much alive in their quest to win the Class 4A State Championship — what could be their 2nd crown in 3 years.

The Lady Patriots stormed into the Top 28 last Thursday with a hard-fought, 48-41 victory over cross-parish rival South Terrebonne.

For Ellender, the victory is their 12th-straight — a far cry from the 9-10 start the team endured in the first few months of the season.


Players say to be this close to the State Championship is rewarding, but they added quickly that the job is not done.

The Lady Patriots took on No. 1 Benton on Tuesday night in the Top 28 in Alexandria with no score available at press-time.

If victorious, they’ll play for the title on Friday night at 8.


Benton beat South Lafourche 60-42 in the Quarterfinals.

“It feels really good,” Ellender senior guard Carly Anderson said of the team’s berth in the Top 28. “We all just are ready to be state champions again. We’re anxious, but yet excited because we’re just ready to experience the feeling we felt when most of us were just sophomores. We’re pushed ourselves to get to where we are now and we didn’t let our record in the beginning of the season bring us down.” This is a resilient bunch.

The Lady Patriots had to replace several key contributors off last year’s team, which caused problems early in the season when going against a tough schedule.


Ellender lost several non-district games against top competition, but more important than the defeats was the lack of energy within the team.

In the 9-10 start, 7 of the losses were by double-digits — a far cry from the level the Lady Patriots are used to.

“We knew what we were capable of as a team,” Anderson said.


“We had a terrible record,” senior Trastasia Hester added.

Then adversity struck further.

Coach Kenneth Dixon left the team mid-season with an illness. He missed a month before returning in the middle of district play.


Without the coach, the Lady Patriots said they came together for their coach and found themselves.

The end result was 9-straight wins to end the regular season and a district title — a streak which included victories over Houma Christian, South Terrebonne, South Lafourche and Assumption — all by 10 or more points.

In the postseason, Ellender cruised, too, winning easily in the first two rounds before beating the Lady Gators in a four-quarter battle — a back and forth game that wasn’t decided until the final minutes.


Hester said the Lady Patriots’ six-member senior class decided midway through the season that they were not going to go out with a whimper.

She said they met, told one another that the energy would be picked up and the team hasn’t looked back ever since.

Hester and Anderson are two members of that senior class. The team also heavily features Nicholls signee Terris McKay, Morghan Frierson, Tanisha Hester and others — one of the deeper teams in the league.


“We just told each other that we couldn’t go out like this,” Hester said. “And then Coach Dixon went out and that pushed us, aslo. We decided to start working harder to get where we are now and the main thing for us now is to finish. And we will continue to work hard in order to finish.”

HOUMA CHRISTIAN — ALSO IN THE TOP 28

Finish is the big goal of Houma Christian, as well.


The Christian Warriors also advanced to the Top 28 last week, crushing St. Martin’s 65-24 in the Quarterfinals to punch a ticket to Alexandria.

With the win, Houma Christian moved to Alexandria where they met No. 3 Vermilion Catholic on Monday night with no score available at press-time.

Last year, the two teams played a thriller in the State Semifinals with Houma Christian winning in overtime.


If the Christian Warriors are successful in the Semifinals, they’ll travel to Alexandria again on Friday and play in the finals at noon.

BOYS’ PLAYOFFS SEES SEVERAL LOCAL SURVIVORS

In the boys’ playoffs, there were three locals still alive in the push for the State Championship — as of press-time on Monday.


In Class 5A, Thibodaux is the No. 1 seed and the Tigers pushed to the second round after a 79-51 victory over Terrebonne.

Thibodaux traveled on Tuesday to face another district foe — No. 17 Hahnville.

In Division II, No. 7 E.D. White is alive after a first-round bye. They hosted No. 10 St. Louis on Tuesday.


Also alive is Houma Christian. They earned the No. 12 seed in the Division IV State Playoffs. They beat No. 21 Westminster Christian 51-36 in the opening-round of the playoffs last week.

They traveled to take on No. 5 St. Mary’s on Tuesday. •

Ellender girls’ basketballCASEY GISCLAIR | THE TIMES


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