Will travel to Airline in first round of playoffs
Heading into last Friday’s district finale with Dutchtown, the Hahnville Lady Tigers were 9-0 and only needed a win to cap an undefeated district season and capture the outright championship.
But Dutchtown, who was 8-1 in district play at the time, came out on fire. They knocked out the Lady Tigers, 64-44, which set up a tiebreaker on Saturday to determine who would get District 6-5A’s top seed in the playoffs.
Though Hahnville played much better this time around, and held a four-point lead heading into the fourth quarter, the Lady Griffins came back to pick up a 48-41 victory.
With the losses, and a subsequent ruling that Warren Easton must forfeit all their games this year, the Lady Tigers tumbled to the 17th seed in the Class 5A state playoffs despite being co-champs of District 6-5A.
Dutchtown 64 Hahnville 44
Dutchtown jumped all over Hahnville early, streaking out to a 20-10 lead to start the contest. The Lady Griffins increased the lead to 44-18 after the third quarter, which effectively put the Lady Tigers out of the game.
Kaelynn Boyd and Shante Evans each scored 16 points for Hahnville. Latoya Evans scored 17 points for Dutchtown, and Ka’Nesheia Cobbins and Maureen Gros chipped in with 16.
“I thought going into Friday with us being 9-0 and them being 8-1 that we had a good chance,” Hahnville head coach Kevin Robicheaux said. “We just didn’t play as good defensively as we could have and that showed on the scoreboard.”
Dutchtown 48 Hahnville 41
Dutchtown again started hot in the tiebreaker, taking a 13-11 lead after the first quarter and stretching the advantage to 25-17 at the half. But the Lady Tigers were impressive on defense in the third quarter, holding Dutchtown to only four points, while scoring 16 to take their first lead of the game at 33-29.
But with less that three minutes remaining, Dutchtown’s Evans scored on a layup to tie the game at 37-37. On the Lady Griffins next possession, Victoria Lowry nailed a three pointer to give Dutchtown a 40-37 lead.
They never trailed again.
Boyd scored 23 points to lead the Lady Tigers, while Evans and Lowery each scored 15 points to lead the Lady Griffins.
“Our defensive effort was much better this time and that allowed us to stay in the flow of the game offensively,” Robicheaux said. “We had the lead going into the fourth quarter despite suffering a 20-point loss the day before.
“I was very proud of the girls for that.”
Warren Easton rules violation sends Lady Tigers on road
When the playoff bracket was announced on Monday, the Lady Tigers were seeded 17th. That means they have to travel to No. 16-seed Airline on Feb. 17, which is a little more than five hours away in Bossier City.
This is despite the fact that the Lady Tigers captured a share of the Class 6-5A district title with a 9-1 record.
The main reason that the Lady Tigers are hitting the road in the first round is because of District 10-4A district champion Warren Easton, according to Robicheaux.
Warren Easton, the state’s No. 7 ranked team in the final Class 4A girls basketball poll, was forced to forfeit all 23 of its victories. They were also removed from the state playoffs due to violations of Louisiana High School Athletic Association rules governing undue influence in illegal recruiting and residence eligibility.
Freshman guard Lawriell Wilson, who led her team in scoring with 17 points a game, was also was declared ineligible for one calendar year by the LHSAA.
According to the LHSAA ruling, Darius Mimms, who coached the Warren Easton girls’ team to a 23-5 record, also had coached Wilson during a summer program prior to her enrolling at the school. Wilson also lived outside of Warren Easton’s attendance zone in Kenner at the time, reports said, thereby creating a violation of an “undue influence” rule enacted by the LHSAA in the past two years.
“We should be hosting South LaFourche on Thursday instead, but the incident with Warren Easton dropped us from the No. 13 seed to the No. 17 seed,” Robicheaux said. “We really got the raw end of the deal.”
Not only will the Lady Tigers have to travel on Thursday, but they will have to face a very good Airline team that is 18-12 on the season.
“They are a well-coached basketball team that is fundamentally sound and they play great defense,” Robicheaux said. “We are having to travel a long way to Shreveport, which makes this a very hard game to win, but we are taking it one game at a time.”
And if the Lady Tigers pick up the win Thursday night at 5:30 p.m. against Airline, they would likely host the No. 1 team in the state, St. Thomas More, on Monday.
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