Ville Platte earns non-district win over Opelousas

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In a back and forth affair that came down to the final seconds and some clutch free throws, the Ville Platte Lady Bulldogs earned a hard fought 48-44 non-district win over the Opelousas Lady Tigers Monday night.
With the win, Ville Platte improves to 3-1 on the season. The Lady Bulldogs are scheduled to play the Crowley Ladies this coming Tuesday at home.
From the start it felt like both teams were ready for a good old fashioned drag out fight. Opelousas opened the game with the first points of the night, however, the clubs took turns answering each other’s punch.
With 2:08 to go in the first quarter, Ville Platte took a 7-4 lead on a running basket by Vandryua Wilson. That three point lead remained until the buzzer sounded to end the initial period, as the Lady Bulldogs headed to the bench with a 9-6 advantage.
The Lady Tigers came out swinging in the first 2:15 of the second quarter, scoring seven unanswered points to take a 14-9 lead. Ville Platte slowly crawled their way back into the game, delivering jab after jab, until they had tied the game up at 16-16 with 3:17 to go in the first half.
A made free throw gave Opelousas a one point lead, 17-16, just thirty seconds later. That scored remained the same until the Lady Tigers knocked down a basket with 58 seconds remaining on the clock.
The Lady Bulldogs pulled to within one on a last second shot by Wilson, giving Ville Platte some momentum as the teams headed into the locker room.
The first points of the third quarter belonged to the Lady Bulldogs when Trinity Leday sank a basket just thirty seconds into the period. Opelousas did not stand still, as they rattled off the next six points in a row to own a 25-20 lead.
Ville Platte countered the Lady Tiger flurry with a 12-0 run of their own. The last bucket of the quarter came via an Opelousas jumper, putting the score at 32-27 in favor of the Lady Bulldogs.
The Lady Tigers gave up the first basket of the fourth and final quarter, however they did not bow down to Ville Platte. Over the course of the next three plus minutes, Opelousas found a way to tie the game up at 37-37.
From that point on it was all about free throws and which team would be able to sink enough shots at the charity stripe to come away with the win.
The game see-sawed back and forth until the 51 second mark when the Lady Tigers tied the game up again, this time at 44-44. The Lady Bulldogs did not flinch over the final seconds of the game, hitting a two point basket and three clutch free throws to hold on for the win.