Vermilion Parish basketball tournament begins Monday at Abbeville High

The seven schools in Vermilion Parish are set to participate in the four-day parish basketball tournament at Abbeville High starting Monday evening.
On the girls side, the top two seeds entering the single elimination tournament are the Vermilion Catholic Lady Eagles and the Delcambre Lady Panthers. Entering the Parish tournament, the top-seeded Lady Eagles are 3-2 overall after an 18-point win over Erath last Tuesday night.
North Vermilion enters with a 4-2 record as well, following a victory against Port Barre Friday night.
“I think this year’s parish tournament is going to be probably one of the best that we’ve had in a few years,” said Vermilion Catholic head coach Kim Guidry. “They’re are good quality teams. Everyone is improving, and I think it’s going to be good competition.”
The No. 4 seed Gueydan Lady Honeybears are undefeated with a 5-0 record and look to take on Erath Monday at 8 p.m in the first round of action.
Another first round matchup pits No. 3 seed Abbeville against No. 6 Kaplan. That game begins at 6:30. The first game of the tournament is between North Vermilion and Delcambre. Delcambre enters the game with a 2-4 record before the finish of their own tournament yesterday.
As preparation for the tournament, Guidry and the Lady Eagles have scheduled tough opponents, including their participation in the STM linear shootout last month.
“We’re trying to play tougher teams not only for power ratings, but to get better for when February comes,” Guidry said. “This tournament is going to be a good challenge. We are going to see what we are made of. Everyone has pretty good athletes and on any given day, anybody can take it.”
Despite a winning record, Guidry said they’re are still things that she would like the team to improve moving forward, especially in the parish tournament.
“Right now, we are justg working on getting into game shape to put together 32 minutes of play consistently,” she said. “You want to get better and put 32 minutes together so when February comes, you are ready to go.”
Girls action starts on Monday, then continues on Wednesday, leading up to the championship game on Thursday at 6 p.m.
On the boys side of the bracket, the top 2 seeds are No 1. Abbeville who will have a bye in the first round, and No. 2 Delcambre.
The boys action gets kicked off on Tuesday with three games on the schedule. The first game is between No. 7 Delcambre and No. 2 Kaplan at 5 p.m. That game is followed by No. 3 North Vermilion against No. 6 Gueydan at 6:30 p.m., and the final game of the first round is between No. 5 Erath and No. 4 Vermilion Catholic at 8 p.m.
Most of the teams in the boys bracket have played only a handful of games, and seem to be pretty evenly matched, according to North Vermilion head coach Jack LeBlanc.
“The games are going to be pretty competitive,” LeBlanc said. “I think a lot of the teams in the parish are fairly even, and we expect to compete with anybody we play in the parish.”
LeBlanc’s Patriots were 2-1 before their results in the Erath tournament yesterday. The Patriots have just really started their season, because like other teams in the area, football season was taking place.
“We just played our third game Thursday night,” LeBlanc said. “Our conditioning level is getting better. We are starting to get into the routine with our football players and I really like our effort defensively. We just have to get our conditioning right, and I think that will come as we play more and more games.”
The parish tournament seems to be a prelude to district play for most of the teams, considering four out of the seven teams play in District 6-3A.
“I think knowing that four out of the seven teams in the parish are in the same district, look forward to playing them for a district championship more than the parish tournament early in the season,” LeBlanc said.

MONDAY
5:00 - Delcambre vs North Vermilion (girls)
6:30 - Abbeville vs Kaplan (girls)
8:00 - Gueydan vs Erath (girls)
TUESDAY
5:00 - Delcambre vs Kaplan (boys)
6:30 - North Vermilion vs Gueydan (boys)
8:00 - Erath vs VC (boys)
WEDNESDAY
4:00 - AHS/KHS winner vs DHS/NV winner (girls)
5:30 - NV/GHS winner vs DHS/KHS winner (boys)
7:00 - VC vs GHS/EHS winner (girls)
8:30 - Abbeville vs EHS/VC winner (boys)
THURSDAY
6:00
GIRL’S CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
7:30
BOY’S CHAMPIONSHIP GAME