On the prowl

PINE PRAIRIE -- Renotta Edwards and her Lady Panthers senior class finally got to celebrate that elusive playoff victory.
Pine Prairie’s five seniors had not won a playoff game in their careers, and Edwards herself had yet to taste a postseason victory in previous seven seasons as the head coach of the Lady Panthers.
That all changed on Saturday afternoon.
No. 15 Pine Prairie defeated visiting No. 18 Crowley 46-30 on Saturday in the opening round of the Class 3A playoffs.
“It’s nice to get that monkey off my back,” Edwards said afterwards. “I am glad for the girls. They deserve it.”
“We’ve all been starting since we were freshmen and our goal has been to get past the first round and today we finally did,” senior center Brianna Wall said. “It feels awesome.”
Pine Prairie’s defense was the star of the show early on Saturday by holding Crowley (11-7) to only six points in the first half of the game.
“Our defense hadn’t been great of late, so we took a step back and went back to the basics,” Edwards said. “I thought our defense was great and they weren’t expecting us to go to a 3-2 zone because we normally don’t play that. We wanted to give them a completely opposite look.”
“We take great pride in that,” Wall said. “We are a defensive-minded team.”
The Lady Panthers offense did enough to build up a 22-6 lead at halftime as they utilized backdoor cuts to counter the Lady Gents post players.
“We liked to get going fast because if we don’t we ended up getting in a skump,” said senior guard Kameron Allen who led the team with 16 points.
Crowley (11-7) was able to take advantage of Pine Prairie miscues in the second half as the Lady Gents scored 26 points in the final two quarters.
The Lady Panthers though would close out the game and celebrate the playoff victory.
“It feels really good,” Allen said. “It took us four years to get here.”
Pine Prairie was unable to keep those good feelings going in a 84-52 loss to No. 2 Albany in the second round of the Class 3A playoffs.
Pine Prairie (15-9) played well the first few minutes of Tuesday’s game against Albany but then in a tightly-officiated game saw Wall pick up two quick fouls. Edwards was forced to pull a substitute off the bench for the remainder of the first quarter.
Wall came back into the game to start the second but quickly picked up her third foul.
“She is the game changer for us,” Edwards said. “She cleans up the boards and is a great defender for us. So it absolutely hurt us against Albany. They had a 6-foot-3 center so not having our big to match hurt us. It affected our game plan for sure.”
Albany (21-5) took full advantage building up a 45-26 lead at halftime. The Lady Hornets put the game away in the third quarter by outscoring the Lady Panthers 25-7.
Pine Prairie was led by seniors and 1,000 career scorers Allen and Asia George. Allen led the way with 20 points while George added 11 in their final games for the Lady Panthers.
The game didn’t end the way Pine Prairie wanted but that didn’t mean that Edwards wasn’t thrilled by the season her team put forth.
“I told them that I was absolutely proud of them,” Edwards said. “We have come a long way. Three of the five seniors I have been coaching them since EPYB when they were only nine years old. So it’s heartbreaking to lose those five seniors.
“That said, I am absolutely proud of the young women they have all become and I am certain that all five of them will be successful in the future.”