Tom Dodge
Defense dominated the night as Opelousas Catholic earned a non-district sweep over St. Edmund.
The Lady Vikings (4-10) opened with an 8-5 first quarter run as OC earned a 29-19 win over the Lady Jays (3-12).
St. Edmund’s Allison Lafleur scored the game’s first bucket before OC’s Allie Carriere and Danielle Leblanc pushed in buckets for OC.
Lady Jay Maggie Larriviere hit a free throw to close the margin to 4-3, but Elissa David later drilled a trey to give the Lady Vikings a 7-3 advantge.
OC’s McKenzie Hudspeth hit a free throw and Lady Jay Abby Miller hit two from the stripe to close the margin to 8-5 heading into the second period.
The Lady Jays won the second period, 4-3 as the offenses continued to struggle.
David hit a bucket to open the quarter, but a free throw by Kinsley Marcantel and a drive in the lane by Lafleur helped the Lady Jays close the margin to 11-8.
Lafleur hit a free throw in the closing seconds as the Lady Jays went into the locker room trailing by two points.
David and Miller exchanged buckets to open the second half.
Inside shots from Sarah Joubert and Hudspeth pushed the Lady Vikings ahead, 17-11.
After Camille Leger hit two free throws for the Lady Jays, David responded with a trey to give OC a 20-13 advantage heading into the fourth quarter.
Lafleur scored in the lane for the Lady Jays, while Leblanc pushed in a bucket for OC.
Leger hit a jumper to close the margin to 22-17 at the 4:55 mark.
A free throw by Leblanc and a drive in the lane from Joubert pushed OC ahead, 25-17.
Lafleur scored the Lady Jays last points with 1:28 remaining, while three points from Carriere sealed the 29-19 win for the Lady Vikings.
David led OC with 10 points, while Lafleur led St. Edmund with nine points.
OC 44, SEH 20
Opelousas Catholic Vikings opened the game with an 8-0 run as the Vikings (5-10) cruised to a 44-20 win over the Blue Jays (2-14).
Devin Theirry scored five points and Matt Courville drilled a trey to give OC an early lead,
Carter Andrus hit a three-pointer with1:07 left for the Blue Jays’ only points in the first period.
The Blue Jays went on a 5-0 run to begin the second quarter, aided by a trey from Austin Gradney and a put-back by Stephan Thibodeaux.
The Vikings responded with five points from Courville and an inside bucket by Theirry along with two free throws from Max Collins.
Christian Fontenot scored in the lane with 4:27 left to help the Jays close the gap to 17-10.
Theirry scored on a second-chance bucket and Collins added a free throw to push the Vikings ahead, 20-10 at the break.
Courville hit a trey to open the third quarter, but Gradney answered with a bucket underneath.
Anthony Henry added a bucket for the Vikings, while Alex Dupre scored on an inbounds play for the Jays.
After three more points from Theirry helped OC push ahead, 30-14, Dupre scored on another inbounds play.
Courville drilled his third trey of the game with 1:05 remaining in the period to give OC a 33-16 advantage.
Gradney answered with a drive in the lane to close the third frame with the Jays trailing by 15 points.
OC put the game away with an 11-2 fourth quarter surge, begun with an inside bucket from Theirry and a trey from Courville.
The Vikings added buckets from Joseph Lamelle and Henry later in the quarter.
Gradney drove the lane with 1:34 left to score the only Blue Jay points in the period.
Theirry led OC with 18 points, while Courville chipped in 14 points.
Gradney led St. Edmund with nine points.
St. Edmund opens District 5-1A competition at False River Academy next Friday.