In the famous words of Yogi Berra, it was deja vu all over again for the Ville Platte High Bulldogs and the Pine Prairie Lady Panthers, as they secured their second Evangeline Parish basketball titles in a row this past weekend.
Ville Platte took home the hardware after blowing past the Sacred Heart Trojans 81-34 in the second game of championship Saturday. Pine Prairie found their way to the trophy with a 48-32 victory over the Sacred Heart Lady Trojans in the opening game of the finals.
With their win, Ville Platte improved to 6-0 on the year. Pine Prairie extended their mark to 8-2 on the season with their victory.
The following is a recap of both championship games.
Girls’ Championship
The game started very slowly on the offensive side of the floor for both teams, as Pine Prairie and Sacred Heart tried to get a feel for how the other was going to attack.
The first points of the game came on a free throw from Anna-Claire Parrott just 13 seconds into the contest. Pine Prairie answered with buckets from Asia George and Brashalyn Doucet to take a 4-1 advantage.
The Lady Trojans were able to tie the game up on a bucket from Blaire Lafleur and a free throw out of the hands of Olivia Hernandez at the 3:52 mark of the first quarter.
From there, the Lady Panthers were able to mount some quick points and go on a 6-2 run over the final minutes of the period to own a 10-6 lead when the buzzer sounded.
A basket and a bonus free throw from George was followed by a bucket from Brianna Wall as the game switched over to the second quarter. Sacred Heart responded with two free throws from Lafleur to make it a 15-8 game half way through the period.
Doucet nailed a three-point shot and Cameron Allen picked up a fast break basket to extend the Pine Prairie lead to 20-8 just 1:28 seconds later. However, the Lady Trojans found a way back into the game, scoring the final six points of the period to only trail by six as the half time horn sounded.
Allen took over the game in the third quarter, picking up four of the first five buckets made, including a three-pointer, to push the Pine Prairie lead to 30-16 with 6:43 left in the period. Maycie Hardy added another three-pointer just 38 seconds later to extend the Lady Panther lead even farther.
Sacred Heart tried to crawl back into the game, getting back-to-back buckets from Parrott and Lafleur, but Pine Prairie countered with a pair of free throws and a basket from Hardy to bring the advantage back to 17 points, 37-20.
The Lady Trojans had an opportunity to ease back closer to Pine Prairie at the foul line. Regrettably, Sacred Heart could only hit on one of three free throws in the final minutes of the quarter following a Lafleur bucket.
Pine Prairie finished the period off with a basket from George to own a 39-23 lead heading into the final quarter.
The fourth period did not see any gain in advantage from either team. As soon as the Lady Trojans would put points on the board, the Lady Panthers would respond, keeping the game at a 16 point differential for the remainder of the contest.
Allen led all Pine Prairie scorers with 15 points, while George collected 11 points for the Lady Panthers.
Lafleur picked up 19 points in a losing effort for the Lady Trojans.
Boys’ Championship
Ville Platte did not need much time establishing themselves as the better team in the final contest of the tournament. The Bulldogs jumped out to a 18-0 lead over the first 6:30 of the first quarter. Most of those points came off of a relentless full court 1-2-2 trapping defense that created a myriad of turnovers for the Sacred Heart Trojans.
Sacred Heart did get on the board at the 1:32 mark of the period on a Jacques Leger bucket. Still, Ville Platte’s pressure continued to lead to easy baskets and the Bulldogs finished the quarter on a 8-0 run, which included back-to-back three-pointers from Devontae Fontenot and Taylin Richard.
The second quarter opened a little better for the Trojans. Following a Braylin Wilson basket for Ville Platte, Tyler Perron and Breck Beaver picked up back-to-back baskets for Sacred Heart to make it a 29-6 game with 7:08 remaining in the half.
The two teams exchanged baskets and free throws for the next 5:10 seconds. With 1:48 to go in the period, Kyle Williams scored on a two-point bucket to give the Bulldogs a 42-16 lead.
Sacred Heart finished the half off with four points, all from Perron to send the teams in the locker room with Ville Platte owning a 42-20 advantage.
The third quarter resembled the opening period, as the Bulldogs began to widen their lead. Over the first seven minutes of the quarter, the Bulldogs outscored the Trojans 21-4 to take a commanding lead.
The two teams swapped baskets to end the period and set the score at 66-26 in favor of Ville Platte as the game found its way into the final quarter.
The fourth period saw Sacred Heart’s offense make up for lost ground. The Trojans netted eight hard fought points in the quarter, but just could not stop the Ville Platte fast break.
Terrian Roy netted 18 points to lead the Bulldogs, while Tye’Wuan Byers chipped in 13 points and Korrin Coward added 12 points. Fontenot contributed 11 points in the win for Ville Platte.
Leger led all Trojan scorers with 10 points.