Erath Lady Bobcats' defense too much for Delcambre

Good defense is the name of the game for the Erath Lady Bobcats, and they proved that with a 50-37 win over the Delcambre Lady Panthers, Monday night in the second game of the Lady Pats Invitational.
“Defense is our strong suit,” Erath Head Girls Basketball Coach Andrea Bernard said. “It always has been, and I feel it always will be.”
The Lady Bobcat defense was very stout in the first quarter, giving up only one point to the Lady Panthers, while the offense scored 13, to go up 13-1 at the end of the first quarter.
The second quarter started out the same way for the Lady Bobcats who added another bucket to take the advantage to 15-1, but the Lady Panthers fought back by going on a 14-6 run to end the second quarter.
At halftime the score was 19-15, Erath.
“We got down 15-1 early,” Delcambre Head Girls Basketball Coach Lisa Richard said. “We just couldn’t make a shot to save our life, but we fought through it and things started to fall for us and that’s how we were able to make it closer at half.”
The third quarter would be much of the same with the Lady Panthers making a push.
After about two minuets of play in the third quarter, and a 8-4 run by the Lady Panthers, it was tied up 23-23.
“I believe it is a mental block,” Bernard said. “My girls, if they don’t score continuously and miss a few shots back-to-back, it becomes a mental game, and that is something that we are working on.”
Coach Bernard also went on to say that her team gets very down on itself if they miss a couple shots in a row. It takes them a while to regain some of their composure.
“Basketball is a very mental game,” Bernard said. “We are working on that every day, and that’s what I told them at half time. If they miss one it’s all right. Just get back on defense and make something happen.”
After losing its lead early in the third quarter. Erath gained its composure back and just took over thanks in large part to Alexis Harrington.
Harrington scored a team and game-high 24 points. Fifteen of her 24 points came in the third quarter alone.
“As soon as 14 (Alexis Harrington) put one ball in the hole, she was ready to go,” Bernard said. “That was a turning point for us. When Alexis (Harrington) is on and confident. our team feeds off of her, and that’s what turned the game around for us.”
The Lady Bobcats would go on to finish the third quarter on a 22-11 run, to end the third quarter with Erath up, 41-26.
The big run by Erath was made possible because of the defense. At one point in time the Lady Bobcat defense forced a turnover in 10 straight possessions for Delcambre
“We just turned the ball over too many times,” Richard said. “After the third quarter we just got into a hole we couldn’t get out of.”
That hole that coach Richard talked about would only widen in the fourth quarter, to the final score of 50-37.
Along with all the turnovers for Delcambre. foul issues were a problem as well.
The Lady Panthers had four starters with four fouls, but that’s something coach Richard knows is going to happen.
“We are a very small team, and that’s one of our problems,” Richard said. “I see no reason to go out there and play scared, but because we are so small we have to play very aggressive defense to try and take the ball away.”
Despite the loss.coach Richard was happy about the way her team played.
“We played well defensively,” Richard said. “We played with a lot of intensity and aggressiveness, but we just couldn’t make shots. Overall, I’m happy the way we played, not with the loss but with the effort.”
Leading the way for the Delcambre Lady Panthers was Nicole Bouillion, who scored 13 points. Seven of which came in the Lady Panthers run to tie the game in the second quarter.
Behind Bouillion was Emily Romero and Tori Verret who each scored seven.
For Erath the leading scorer was Harrington who had a game high 24. Next in line for the Lady Bobcats was Ashley Dubois who netted 10.
“Once we get in our groove we are kind of hard to stop,” Bernard said. “With defense being our strong suit, if our offense can ever match what our defense is doing then we will be really hard to stop, and that is sort of what happened in the third quarter for us.”
Both of these teams will continue on in the Lady Pats Invitational.
Erath will move on to the winners side of the bracket and face off against North Vermilion last night.
Delcambre moves to the losers side of the bracket to face off against Gueydan.