Playoff picture

Another regular season has gone by in the world of LHSAA girls’ basketball and the time has come for teams throughout the state to make their run for the ultimate prize, the state championship.
Four of those teams looking to win a title come from Evangeline Parish. The Pine Prairie Lady Panthers, the Ville Platte Lady Bulldogs, the Sacred Heart Lady Trojans and the Basile Lady Bearcats are all in the mix for a shot at glory and are hoping they can make a run at the big trophy beginning tonight.
Of those four teams listed, only Pine Prairie was able to secure a home playoff game. The No. 16 ranked Lady Panthers will begin their post-season run by hosting the No. 17 Bossier Lady Bearkats. This will be the second season in a row that the Lady Panthers will host a first round playoff game.
Pine Prairie produced another banner year, recording a 21-11 mark after a 20-11 effort just one year ago. The Lady Panthers began the 2019-20 campaign on fire, winning 11 of their first 13 games and 15 of their first 18 contests.
However, Pine Prairie cooled off down the stretch. In the last 14 games of the season, the Lady Panthers were only able to pick up six wins, including finishing 4-6 in District 5-3A play.
Pine Prairie’s first opponent, Bossier, comes into the contest with an overall record of 14-12. The Lady Bearkats finished with a 1-3 record in District 1-3A. Bossier averages right at 45 points per game on offense and surrenders 41.3 points per game on defense.
Game time between Pine Prairie and Bossier is set for 6 p.m. tonight.
Staying in Class 3A, the Ville Platte High Lady Bulldogs will hit the road to Deville to take on the Buckeye Lady Panthers. Ville Platte holds the No. 19 seed in the post-season, while Buckeye sits in the No. 14 position.
Ville Platte had a roller coaster ride of a season. The Lady Bulldogs were 6-4 after their first ten games and went 4-3 over the next seven games.
However, Ville Platte found the latter part of the season to be a tad turbulent. The Lady Bulldogs ended the year with a 4-8 record, including a 4-6 finish in District 5-3A.
Ville Platte will face a team in Buckeye that completed the year with an overall record of 21-9 and a District 3-3A record of 6-2. The Lady Panthers average 52.3 points per game on the offensive side of the court and give up 43.2 points per game on the defensive end of the hard court.
Ville Platte and Buckeye are set to square off at 6:00 p.m. tonight.
The No. 16 seed Sacred Heart Lady Trojans will find it a tough go on the road, as they travel to Monroe to face off against the No. 1 seed Ouachita Christian Lady Eagles in the first round of the Division IV playoffs.
Sacred Heart started off the season on a rough note, going 3-4 in their first seven games. The Lady Trojans rebounded in the parish tournament, scraping out a 2-2 record and a second place finish.
From that point on, the wins came sporadically, as Sacred Heart completed the last 15 games of the year 6-9. The Lady Trojans ended the regular season with an overall record of 11-15 and a district record of 2-3.
Sacred Heart’ first round opponent, Ouachita Christian, did not have a problem winning games this year. The Lady Eagles ended the year with a perfect 32-0 mark.
The most impressive part of Ouachita Christian’s season is not the consistent play on offense, as the Lady Eagles average right at 60 points per game. Probably more impressive is the fact that Ouachita Christian only allows opponents to 29 points per game; a scoring difference of 31 points per game.
Game time for Sacred Heart and Ouachita Christian is set for 6 p.m. tonight.
Finally, in Class 1A, the No. 23 seed Basile Lady Bearcats will try to steal a win on the road at Northwood-Lena as they take on the No. 10 seed Lady Gators in Lena.
Basile struggled this year to pick up any momentum, going 8-20 on the season. The Lady Bearcats started 5-7, but once they hit the latter part of the season, they were unable to get things going, especially in district, where they finished 1-12.
Northwood comes into the contest with Basile sporting a 17-8 overall record and 6-4 record in District 3-1A. The Lady Gators average 51 points per game offensively and surrenders 43 points per game defensively.
Basile and Northwood will tangle beginning at 6 p.m. tonight.