Erath Lady Bobcats win rare Vermilion Parish Tournament title

DELCAMBRE - The 2015-2016 Erath Lady Bobcats may have made history Thursday night in Delcambre.
The Lady Bobcats beat the No. 1 seed, Vermilion Catholic Lady Eagles, 46-31, in the finals of the Vermilion Parish Tournament.
The Lady Bobcats, seeded No. 3, played three games to reach the finals.
What makes this victory so sweet is that no one could find another time where an Erath girls team won the parish tournament. Dating back to 1975 when the tournament was restarted, Erath has never won or even advanced to parish finals.
Andrea Bernard, a former EHS player and now the head coach, said, “It is a great feeling to win parish.”
Heading into the parish tournament Erath felt slighted after it saw the seeding. The Lady Bobcats were ranked No. 3, behind No. 1 VC (who they beat earlier) and No. 2 Gueydan High School.
EHS whipped Gueydan in the semifinals to reach the finals.
Bernard said her team did not like where the coaches ranked the Lady Bobcats. They were hoping for at least a No. 2 ranking, or maybe, a No. 1.
“We took that personal,” said Bernard, who is due to have a baby any day now. “We thought we were on the road to being ranked first or second. The girls used that as their fuel.”
Erath High came into the finals averaging 68 points a game in parish. They scored 71 and 66 the first two games.
Against VC they were held to 46.
The first half started off slow for Erath High. because its junior point guard Monette Bolden got into foul trouble in the first quarter. Two minutes into the game, she had two fouls, so she sat on the bench.
With their leading scorer sitting, it allowed VC to stay in the game.
The Lady Eagles actually led 9-6 with 2:55 to play in the first period. Bella Doucet scored two
buckets and Leah Camel added another bucket to give VC its only lead.
Then Bolden checked back into the game when the second quarter started. Twenty seconds into the second period, Bolden ripped a three pointer, which lit a fire under Erath.
Erath went on an 11-0 run behind Monette who finished the second quarter with 9 points. Erath outscored VC 15-2 in the period and it went into the locker room leading, 21-11.
VC struggled to score because they were without point guard Jay Demouchet, who missed the entire game due to an illness.
VC head coach Kim Guidry tried to use the negative of not having Demouchet as a positive for her team.
“If it would be a football game, not having Jay would be like not having the quarterback,” said Guidry. “But I told the kids today our job was to have someone step up. It was an opportunity instead of a negative thing, it was a positive thing.”
Filling in for DeMouchet was another freshman, Ainsely Mallet. She scored four points and had the tough task of guarding Bolden. Guidry praised Mallet for a job well done.
Because the shooting of Bolden, EHS stayed at least 10 points ahead of VC the entire second half.
She finished the game with 27 points. In the three games, she averaged 27 points a night. Had the coaches named an MVP in girls, Bolden would have won it. She made 11 3 -pointers in the tournament.
The rest of the scorers for EHS were Gabby Harrington (7), Hannah Soileau (2), Alexis Lege (7) and Olivia Blanchard (3).
Scorers for VC were Leah Camel with 9, and Bella Doucet with 9. Olivia Chiasson had 6, while Kelly White made 3 points.