Lady Panthers have big 4th quarter, edge Saints 45-35

With their playoff hopes dwindling, the Delcambre Lady Panthers pulled away in the fourth quarter from the district-leading Academy of Sacred Heart Saints to win 45-35 Thursday night.
Delcambre (14-14, 10-4) outscored the Saints 17-8 in the final quarter, to end their season with a second place finish in District 5-2A.
"We were patient on offense, and we had not been patient all year," said Delcambre coach Lisa Richard. "Tonight was the first night all year we did not press. We wanted to slow it down because they (Sacred Heart) like to play fast. It seems like we were on the same page all night. They played like the team we wanted them to play like all year."
The Lady Panthers held a 11-9 lead at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter, Sacred Heart outscored Delcambre 12-10 to tie the game at 21 at halftime.
The third quarter was low scoring for both teams, and the Lady Panthers held on to a slim 28-27 advantage going into the fourth quarter.
With the score 30-29 in favor of Delcambre, the Lady Panthers went on a 11-1 run spanning three minutes, that was capped off by a Tori Verret bucket with a little under three minutes remaining in the game. Delcambre's Nicole Bouillion scored or assisted on all 11 points during the run to put the game out of reach.
"I'm very happy with the win," Bouillion said. "We clicked more as a team, and we didn't commit stupid fouls. We played smart on defense, and we knew who did what on their team, and how to stop them. ""I wish we would’ve stepped up in some of the other games and won, but we're very happy we beat the No. 1 team in district."
Verret was the Lady Panthers' leading scorer with 14 points followed by Bouillion and Taylor Moneaux who scored 10 points each. Other Delcambre scorers were: Saige LeBlanc (7) and Kessler Dooley (4).
Delcambre entered the week ranked No. 37 in the power ratings, but with a 1-1 record for the week, Richard said she doubts her team will be selected in the 32-team playoff bracket.
"We did not talk about playoffs. I don't think it's in the cards for us," she said. "I told them we have four returning starters and a good group of girls. I'm hoping this will carry over. I told them to keep this feeling of how they played and the disappointment of not making the playoffs with them going into next year and hopefully we can start faster."
The Lady Panthers will know officially if they made the playoffs when the selections are made on Monday on the Louisiana High School Sports Athletic Association (LHSAA) website.