Pine Prairie defense shows up in big way with win at St. Ed’s

EUNICE -- It was the play of the Pine Prairie defense that shown through Thursday night, as the Lady Panthers sprinted past the St. Edmund Lady Blue Jays 41-29.
With the win, Pine Prairie improves to 6-3 on the year. The Lady Panthers are scheduled to host the Oakdale Lady Warriors Tuesday night.
After the game, Pine Prairie head coach Renotta Edwards talked about the play of her team on the defensive side of the floor.
“Defense is our staple,” stated Edwards. “We try to get the ball off of the floor. We had to adjust our defense in the second half and not press as much because our best defender and quickest player was on the bench in foul trouble. But, we had players step up and play well for us.”
A ton of turnovers and a lack of high percentage shooting plagued both teams in the first quarter of play. St. Ed’s jumped on the board right away, scoring a basket within the first six seconds of the game.
However, it would be two whole minutes before Pine Prairie could answer with a basket of their own. The next time points were scored, the Lady Panthers’ Brashaylan Doucet knocked down a basket in the lane with 2:10 showing on the clock.
Pine Prairie finished the period with a lone free throw from Macy Hardy, while the Lady Jays found a way to pick up another bucket with 1:09 to go in the quarter. By the time the low scoring period ended, the Lady Panthers owned a 5-4 lead.
Utilizing both a three-quarters and a half court trapping defense, Pine Prairie began to force some huge St. Ed’s mistakes. The Lady Panthers took advantage of those mistakes and turned them into a nine point run.
The Lady Jays cooled the run off for a moment when Mary Helen Miller connected on a three-point basket at the 5:50 mark of the period. A 5-2 run by Pine Prairie over the next 3:20 expanded their lead back to 10 points, 19-9. Greta Miller knocked down a three-point shot and Tanzy Miller hit two free throws over the final minute of the half to cut the Lady Panther lead down to five, 19-14, as the teams headed into the locker room.
“To be quite honest, we had a horrible practice yesterday,” said Edwards. “I told them, you play like you practice. We had a low energy practice coming off of a big win over Bolton. We can’t just come in and think we can roll over a team, especially one like St. Ed’s. They are a well-coached, disciplined team.”
Like the first quarter of play, the third quarter did not produce many points from either team. Pine Prairie started the second half on a 5-1 run to expand their advantage to nine points. St. Ed’s found a way to close the gap somewhat in the remaining minutes of the period, cutting the Lady Panther lead down to six, 26-20.
Pine Prairie did not allow the game to get any closer in the final period of play. The Lady Panthers upped their advantage to nine midway through the period and then turned on the jets in remaining minutes.