MAMOU -- It was a battle between the Northern and Southern part of the parish Friday night as the Pine Prairie basketball teams headed down Highway 13 to take on the Mamou hard court squads.
When the final whistle blew on the doubleheader, the two schools found themselves with a split decision, with the Pine Prairie Lady Panthers blowing past the Mamou Lady Demons 62-24 and the Mamou Demons pulling away from the Pine Prairie Panthers in the second half for a 49-30 win.
With the win, the Lady Panthers upped their record to 19-7 overall and 2-2 in District 5-3A. The Lady Demons dropped to 6-16 on the season and 0-4 in league play.
The Demons increased their overall record to 5-20 and 1-1 in district competition. Meanwhile the Panthers fell to 1-21 on the year and 0-2 in league action.
Here is a re-cap of those two games.
Pine Prairie
vs. Mamou (G)
There was no doubt as to who came ready to play as Pine Prairie owned the game from the jump ball.
The first minute of the contest produced just two points, free throws from Asia George. However, from that point on, the Lady Panthers were a scoring machine.
Using some great defensive effort, Pine Prairie created a plethora of turnovers that resulted in easy buckets. By the time Mamou could blink, the Lady Panthers were on top 10-0 at the 5:19 mark of the opening period.
A pause in the scoring over the next 3:09 kept the 10 point advantage for Pine Prairie. The Lady Panthers stayed on the attack defensively and produced five more points over the final two minutes of the quarter to own a 15-0 lead.
After a Aliyah Soileau bucket to open the second quarter, the Lady Demons finally got on the board with a Brianna Thibodeaux three-point basket. Pine Prairie remained aggressive enough both offensively and defensively to stretch the lead to 19 points at the 4:45 mark of the period.
Mamou was able to pick up the pace on offense down the first half stretch but could not shake the intensity of the Lady Panthers. By the time the horn sounded for the teams to head into the locker room, Pine Prairie held a 37-18 lead.
The Lady Panthers began the third quarter on a 4-0 run. The Lady Demons made it a 40-20 game on a basket by Markaysha Johnson. That basket did not phase Pine Prairie one bit, as Soileau and Kameron Allen combined for the next 10 points, to increase the Lady Panther lead to 30 points.
The final 1:21 of the period once again belonged to Pine Prairie. During that span, the Lady Panthers picked up another eight points in a row, including a last second three-point bucket from Allen, to farther increase their advantage.
The final quarter saw Pine Prairie sub in their bench players and finish out the game and take home a district win.
Allen punched in 21 points to lead the Lady Panthers, while Soileau chipped in 15. Asia George contributed 12 points for Pine Praire.
Brianna Thibodeaux was the high scorer for Mamou with 13 points. Johnson added 7 points.
Pine Prairie
vs. Mamou (B)
Scoring came at a premium for both squads to begin the nightcap game. Pine Prairie got on the board first when Bryce Ardoin stroked a three-point basket 2:06 into the game.
Mamou tied the contest up on a two-point basket and a bonus free throw by Darmarcus Wilson. The game see-sawed back and forth over the next 3:23, with neither team gaining an advantage and the scoreboard showing a 7-7 tie.
The Demons then began to overtake Pine Prairie defensively, resulting in some untimely Panthers turnovers. Mamou took advantage of those gifts and cruised to a 7-0 run over the final minutes of the initial period.
Pine Prairie tried to sneak back into the game, scoring the first three points of the second quarter. However, Mamou had enough answers to lead 21-12 at the 5:04 mark of the period.
That nine point advantage held true for most of the remaining time in the half. The Demons found a way to finish off the second quarter with a 29-18 lead as the teams headed in for halftime.
The third quarter did not produce a whole lot of points for both schools. In fact the two teams combined for a grand total of seven points the entire period. As the buzzer sounded to end the period, the Demons owned a 33-21 lead over the Panthers.
Mamou stretched their 12 point lead to 13 points over the first 2:40 of the final quarter. As the Demons ramped up the defensive pressure, Pine Prairie made a series of mistakes that turned into easy Mamou points.
In a 56 second span, Mamou’s Kyrian Green stole the ball on three different occasions and found his way to the basket for easy lay-ups. That run propelled the Demons to a 42-23 lead with 4:14 to go in the game.
From that point on, Mamou stayed on track and matched Pine Prairie point for point to finish out the game and get their first district win of the year.
Tyrin Broussard led the way for the Demons with 19 points. Green netted 14 points in the winning effort.
Pine Prairie was led by Chase Freeman who scored nine points.