Rhythm lost

EUNICE -- As good as the Sacred Heart offense was in the first half of their LHSAA Division IV first round playoff game against St. Ed’s, the Lady Trojans struggled to find any rhythm on that side of the floor in the second half, as they fell to the Lady Blue Jays 45-32 Thursday night.
With the loss, the Lady Trojans finish the season with an overall record of 8-17. St. Ed’s improves to 11-17 and will travel to Lafayette to take on Lafayette Christian on Monday.
Sacred Heart came out with a ton of unmatched intensity to start the game. Putting major defensive pressure on St. Ed’s, the Lady Trojans forced key turnovers on the Lady Blue Jays first two possessions.
Sacred Heart was able to convert two of those turnovers to baskets, as Olivia Hernandez scored on lay-ups to give the Lady Trojans the early 4-0 lead. St. Ed’s settled down long enough to pick up the next three points of the quarter.
With 2:01 to go in the opening period, Sacred Heart’s Lauren Shipp picked up her first bucket of the game to give the Lady Trojans the 6-3 lead. The Lady Blue Jays finished out the scoring in the quarter with back-to-back baskets from Rebecca Benoit, allowing St. Ed’s to take a one point lead as time expired in the first period.
Sacred Heart came out of the break determined to get the lead back from the Lady Blue Jays. Once again, defensive pressure produced points on the other side of the floor for the Lady Trojans.
Sacred Heart’s Blaire Lafleur converted on two free throws to open the second quarter. From that point on it was all Shipp, as she scored on three straight possessions to put the Lady Trojans up by eight, 15-7, with 5:27 to go in the period.
As they did toward the end of the first period, St. Ed’s slowly worked their way back into the ball game. Over the next 1:23, the Lady Blue Jays found a way to cut the Sacred Heart lead back down to two points, 15-13.
Shipp added a free throw and a two-point basket the next two times down the floor to put the Lady Trojans back up by three. However, The Lady Blue Jays’ Savannah Devillier responded in kind, matching Shipp point for point to cut the Sacred Heart lead down to 18-16 as the teams headed into the locker room.
The Lady Trojans came out on to the floor to start the third quarter with the same drive and intensity they did to begin the game. Three free throws and an Amanda Bergeron jump shot over the first two minutes of the period put Sacred Heart up 23-16.
Both teams went silent on the offensive side of the floor for the next 3:15 after that initial Lady Trojan flurry. It wasn’t until the 2:45 mark until St. Ed’s was able to pick up four unanswered points and cut the Sacred Heart lead down to three, 23-20.
With 1:56 to go in the period, the Lady Trojans got a chance to open the game up even wider when Anna-Claire Parrot was fouled by Devillier, who in frustration was hit with a technical foul for slamming the ball down in disgust. However, Sacred Heart could only convert on one of the four free throws from the sequence.
The Lady Trojans regrouped enough to pick up four more points before the end of the quarter. But, the Lady Blue Jays did not let Sacred Heart move ahead too far, scoring three points of their own to make it a 28-23 heading into the final period.
The fourth quarter was a total contradiction of the first two periods in terms of fouls called. The first half saw neither team reach the bonus. However, the officiating became tighter throughout the second half, making the final quarter a free throw contest.
Over the first 2:37 of the fourth period, the two teams combined to reach the free throw line four times, with St. Ed’s benefitting the most, cutting the Lady Trojan lead down to one, 31-30, with 5:23 left in the game. Twenty seconds later, Devillier hit a basket under the rim to give St. Ed’s a 32-31 lead; a lead they would not surrender the rest of the game.
With the game now back in their hands, the Lady Blue Jays went away from their man-to-man defense they had utilized all night long and turned to a sagging zone, forcing the Lady Trojans to shoot the ball from the outside.
Unfortunately for Sacred Heart, the strategy worked. The Lady Trojans were unable to connect on their jump shots and found their last point of the night on a free throw from Lafleur.
St. Ed’s took control of the game from that point on, gathering rebound after rebound and getting to the free throw line on almost every possession over the final five minutes of the contest. The Lady Blue Jays took advantage of their time at the charity stripe, hitting nine of their last 19 free throws.
In between, St. Ed’s picked up two big baskets, including one with four seconds left in the game to seal the win and move on to the next round.
“It was definitely a tale of two halves,” stated Sacred Heart head coach Josh Harper. “In the first half, the flow of the game was a lot smoother. Even though it was a physical game, the officials let the girls play. But, for some reason in the second half, the game was called a lot tighter. But give St. Ed’s credit, they made the plays when they needed to.”
“We did not execute in the second half like we did in the first two quarters,” Harper continued. “We missed shots, especially in the third quarter that could have kept us in the game. All season long the third quarter has been our Achilles’ heel. All in all, I am super proud of the way the team played with intensity and drive all year long. They truly got better and better each time out. Our seniors are going to be missed tremendously. They gave the kind of leadership that coach’s dream of. It will be tough to replace them.”
Shipp led all Lady Trojans with 17 points. Lafleur added six points.