Lady Cats even up district record with 43-39 win

Thelezia Folse

Ciara Augillard lays the ball in for the Lady Wildcats.

After starting district play with back-to-back wins, the Destrehan Lady Cats dropped three straight games to Dutchtown, Hahnville and East St. John.

And though those losses were tough, Destrehan bounced back with a 43-39 win over East Ascension on Friday to move even in district play at 3-3.

The Lady Cats pounced on East Ascension early, and ran out to a 15-6 lead. They stretched their advantage to 25-15 at the half, but had to hold off a big East Ascension rally in the fourth quarter to pick up the win.

Destrehan's Charde Jackson led her team with 10 points, while Ciara Augillard had nine and Jordan Dabney finished with seven points.

One of the reasons the Lady Cats have struggled recently is because coach Angi Butler said the whole team has been battling sickness.

"We are really struggling right now with the whole team being sick and trying to play ball at the same time," she said. "We are not quite ourselves when we aren't feeling well."

But the Lady Cats will need to get better in a hurry. To advance to the playoffs, the team must win two, and maybe three, of their next four games.

"This has truly given them the desire to prove themselves that much more," Butler said. "They started this second round of district with a 0-0 mentality to improve on our past mistakes and win each game one at a time."

In order to do so, Butler said the girls must be more focused and patient out on the court.

"I would like to see their will to win as a team and continue to work hard to achieve their goal to make the playoffs," she said. "They have worked so hard this season and I hope to see that continue over the next two weeks."