PINE PRAIRIE -- In one of the hardest fought games all season for both teams, the Pine Prairie Lady Panthers pulled out a last minute win over the Ville Platte Lady Bulldogs in the first district action of the season.
With the win, Pine Prairie improves to 16-5 on the year and 1-0 in District 5-3A. The Lady Panthers travel to Church Point tomorrow night to take on the Lady Bears in another district contest.
Ville Platte drops to 10-8 on the year and 0-1 in league play with the loss. The Lady Bulldogs host Northwest tomorrow night in a district contest.
Free throw attempts dominated the first 2:30 of action. Ville Platte was able to capitalize on their aggressive play both offensively and defensively, getting to the line six times during that time span.
The Lady Bulldogs hit on three of those six free throw attempts and added a two-point basket to take a 5-2 lead with 5:30 to go in the opening quarter.
Pine Prairie righted the ship long enough to keep the deficit the same over the ensuing 2:26. However, Ville Platte knocked down eight of the next nine points, including two three-pointers from Tahjalya Jack and J’Kyra Jackson, to secure a 10 point advantage, 17-7, as the first period came to a close.
The second quarter did not produce much in the way of scoring for either team. The Lady Panthers did manage to pick up the first two buckets of the period from Brianna Wall and Asia George to cut the Lady Bulldog lead back down to six points.
Over the last five minutes of the period, the two squads were only able to manage to up their score two more points each. As the teams headed into the locker room for halftime, Ville Platte held a slim 19-13 lead.
Ville Platte’s Trinity Leday started the scoring in the third quarter with a two-point bucket. Aliyah Soileau answered a minute later with a three-point basket of her own.
Ville Platte moved ahead even farther with 4-0 mini-run to take a 25-16 lead with 5:00 to go in the period. Undaunted, the Lady Panthers slowly chipped away at the Lady Bulldog advantage.
Over the final five minutes of the quarter, Pine Prairie outpaced Ville Platte 10-2 to bring the score to within one, 27-26. Most of the damage for the Lady Panthers came from guard Kameron Allen, who had been held in check for two and a half quarters.
Allen asserted herself offensively enough to pick up six of the those final 10 points from Pine Prairie.
The Lady Panthers began the fourth quarter with a basket from George to take the lead for the first time in the game. Ville Platte answered back with two free throws from Leday.
The lead changed hands four more times until Ville Platte held a 34-32 edge with 1:10 to go in the game. Allen got the Lady Panthers back on top aT the 49 second mark when she was fouled on her way up to a made lay-up. Allen sunk the and one free throw to give Pine Prairie a 35-34 lead.
Ville Platte came down the floor a couple of times over the following 47 seconds with chances to pull back ahead. Be that as it may, the Lady Bulldogs were unable to put the ball into the basket for the lead.
The final bucket came with less than one second on the clock when Wall blocked and then stole an inbound pass which she then took to the hoop for the lay-up as time expired.
Allen led the way for the Lady Panthers with 18 points.
Leday scored 13 points for the Lady Bulldogs.
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Tracey Jagneaux
Sports Editor