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Central Catholic's Sydney Williams dribbles the basketball during Thursday's quarterfinal contest. (The Daily Review/Geoff Stoute)

LCA pulls away to defeat CCHS 52-36

Division IV’s top seed Lafayette Christian Academy Lady Knights may have advanced to the Division IV semifinals for the third straight season Thursday after defeating No. 8 Central Catholic 52-36 in Division IV quarterfinal action, but the Lady Eagles gave the Lady Knights all they wanted for a half.
Central Catholic trailed just 15-12 after a period of play and 20-17 at halftime.
It wasn’t until points off Central Catholic turnovers in the third period helped Lafayette Christian distance itself.
It was much different from the teams’ District 7-1A matchup approximately a month ago in Lafayette when Lafayette Christian pulled away after a close first quarter for an eventual 68-25 victory.
“You’re in the playoffs,” Lafayette Christian Head Coach Devin Lantier said. “You’re in the third round. To think you’re going to just walk into the game and just walk away with it like you did in the district game, you’re fooling yourself. These girls are fighting for their life just like we are. We came in flat. We weren’t making any shots.”
Lantier said it felt like every shot Central Catholic attempted was going in.
“But that’s basketball, and one thing we know that that can happen, so we just kept fighting,” he said.
Central Catholic Assistant Coach Joe Jones said his squad played hard and if not for some first-half mistakes, they would have had a lead.
“When you can have confidence that you can play, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing against,” he said. “I know that nobody really gave us a chance to compete against this team. I did. Our coaches did, and when our players started believing that, they know that they can play with anybody. Then it becomes really easy not only for this game but to carry over for the future, because we have young players.”
In the third quarter, Lafayette Christian (31-5) stretched its lead to as much as 13 points on two occasions, the last time via a Bre Porter bucket late in the quarter for Lafayette Christian’s final points of the period and a 38-25 lead.
Lafayette Christian took its biggest lead of the game at 44-25 when Tamera Johnson connected on a three-point play when she converted a layup and the accompanying free throw with 7:15 remaining.
However, the Lady Eagles (11-18) went on an 11-2 run, capped by a Sydney Williams layup with 1:33 remaining to cut its deficit to 46-36.
That was as close as Central Catholic would get, though.
“If you have one of your worst nights offensively, the other team’s playing pretty decent and you win by 16, I’ll take it every night,” Lantier said.
The Lady Knights now will advance to the Allstate Sugar Bowl/Louisiana High School Athletic Association Girls’ Marsh Madness next week at Rapides Coliseum in Alexandria where they will face No. 5 Ouachita Christian. Ouachita Christian advanced to the semifinals after defeating No. 4 Cedar Creek in Ruston in other quarterfinal action Thursday.
While Central Catholic never led, the Lady Eagles tied the game once at 2 on Yani Johnson’s turnaround jumper with 6:19 remaining in the first quarter.
Lafayette Christian extended its lead to as much as 10-3 in the period via a three-pointer by Zoe Wiltz, but Central Catholic outscored the home standing squad 9-5 the remainder of the quarter, including a two-point bucket by Johnson just before the buzzer to cut Central Catholic’s deficit to 15-12 after a quarter. Yani Johnson led all scorers with 20 points.
The teams combined for just 10 points in the second quarter.
Yani Johnson’s bucket off an assist by Caitlyn Picou cut Central Catholic’s deficit to 17-16 with about 3:30 remaining in the first half for the closest the Lady Eagles would get the rest of the night.
“Hats off to them. They did a great job. I can’t say that I’m shocked. They got a big girl that can play, and she was battling,” Lantier said of Central Catholic and Yani Johnson. “I don’t know what her (shooting) percentage was, but it was high.”
Jones said the Lady Eagles would run 30 to 40 seconds off the clock one play, and the next trip down the court, they would run their sets at regular game speed.
“That kind of threw them off with everything,” Jones said of Lafayette Christian. “That way we can run our plays. We made good passes. Their full-court trap didn’t affect us as much as the first game. We did a good job with that. We did a good job of rebounding. Sometimes we got some bad calls because I thought they were pushing us and they (weren’t) calling (it).”
Autumn Chassion led three Lafayette Christian players in double figures with 15 points. Johnson had 14 and Porter recorded 10 points.
Other Central Catholic scorers were Jalaysia Bertrand, seven; Lexie Landry and Picou, three each; Williams, two; and Laurielle Bias, one.
Central Catholic will say goodbye to seniors first-year player Caroline Green and veteran Sydney Williams.
Jones said Green set a good example for younger players that young can accomplish things if you work hard and learn the game.
“She did a very good job of leadership with that,” he said.
Jones said Williams did a good job hustling and rebounding.
“She’s done amazing for the last five years with it,” Jones said.

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