Lady Tigers fall to Airline in first round

Thelezia Folse

Kaelynn Boyd scored 29 points in Hahnville’s 57-44 loss to Airline last week.

Despite 29 points from Kaelynn Boyd, the Hahnville Lady Tigers were defeated by Airline in the bi-district round of the Class 5A state playoffs.

Hahnville, who captured a share of the District 6-5A title after finishing 9-1, was forced on the road for the first round of the playoffs due to rules violations by District 10-4A champion Warren Easton.

Because of what the Louisiana High School Athletic Association deemed undue influence in illegal recruiting and residence eligibility, Easton had to forfeit all 23 of their wins.

With the domino effect that followed, Hahnville fell from the No. 13 seed to the No. 17 seed. If the Tigers had remained at the 13th spot, they would have hosted South Lafourche instead of traveling to Airline.

 That meant that the Lady Tigers had to battle for the win in front of a pro-Airline crowd, and also had to travel more than five hours for the contest.

Despite those conditions, the Lady Tigers went toe-to-toe with Airline in the first quarter, and took a 10-8 lead into the second. But that's when Airline pulled away. They outscored Hahnville 15-4 in that period to take a 23-14 lead into the break.

The Lady Tigers stormed back in the third quarter, outscoring Airline 16-11 to cut the Airline lead to four points at 34-30.

But in the fourth Airline was too much to overcome as they held on for the 57-44 victory.

Boyd was spectacular in the game, finishing with 29 points. Shante Evans added six points, while Taylor Weber finished with four points.

But Airline didn't stay alive in the playoffs much longer. On Monday, they lost to No. 1 seed St. Thomas More 64-22.