VC ends season on a sour note

ABBEVILLE – Vermilion Catholic’s 48-32 boys’ basketball season ending defeat to visiting

Ascension Episcopal School clearly was not the way both Eagles’ players and coaches wanted their season to end.

“It sucks it ended this way,” said Drake Broussard, one of seven seniors to be honored before the game. “This is my last (scholastic) basketball game ever.”

The game also marked the last time that Tyler Lege, Brennan Gallet, Mike Campbell, Shay Laporte, Wes Meaux, and Connor Menard, in addition to Broussard, will all be wearing the Eagles basketball uniform.

Campbell led the Eagles with nine points, while Broussard and Chris Campbell had seven each.

It was a bittersweet ending for coach ‘Roch’ Charpentier, who acknowledged the outstanding athletic achievements that this group have accomplished, including many being part of Vermilion Catholic’s 14-0 State Football Title this past fall.

“I will miss them,” said Charpentier. “Vermilion Catholic will miss them. They had outstanding careers here. They have one more sport (baseball) to get ready for, and after that, it may be time to move on.”

Ironically, the success of the football team caused many of the basketball team’s key players to arrive late, as the hoops team got off to a 0-8 start en route to a 9-15 record. Charpentier refuses to allow that to be an excuse though.

“It may have affected our overall record, but it didn’t affect us in the second half (of the season).

We lost some close games then we should have won.”

In Friday’s game, the Eagles got off to a 9-5 first quarter lead before being outscored 13-7 in the second to trail 18-16 at halftime. The Gators opened two leads of nine points in the third quarter.

Vermilion Catholic then went on an 11-4 run, which was started by an unassisted field goal, and free throw by Chris Collins, after his steal; to only trail 32-30 early in the fourth quarter.

Ascension then went on an 8-0 run of their own to take a commanding 40-30 lead.

“It was a game of runs,” Charpentier said. “They just had more runs than us. We missed too many shots. We missed too many 3-pointers and we missed too many foul shots.”

While acknowledging the progress the program made this season, Charpentier knows this does not guarantee future success.

“We have a lot of work to do,” he said. “We started to take a step in the right direction, but we weren’t able to put it all together. I thought we were a playoff team.”

It clearly was not the way that Broussard, who just months ago was celebrating a State Football Championship, wanted to season to end.

“It (the difference between how the football season and basketball season ended) is way different,” he said. “We ended the (football) season with a championship.”

Ascension was also victorious in the earlier JV game by a score of 41-33. Donnie Comeaux paced Vermilion Catholic with eight points and his teammate Andre Dubois added six.

Bill Levy
Sports Correspondent