LAFAYETTE – The No. 16 Lady Jays knew the challenge ahead of them when they faced top-seed Lafayette Christian Academy Monday in the regional round of the LHSAA Division IV girls basketball playoffs.
The two-time defending champions lived up their ranking as the Lady Knights rolled to a 85-28 victory.
The Lady Jays (11-18) battled to keep the game close in the first quarter as St. Ed’s only trailed 12-7 midway through the period.
Tanzy Miller drained a trey and then Savannah DeVillier added four points for the Lady Jays.
LCA (30-5) then went on an 11-0 run, including three pointers from Ajayah Simpson and Melia Sylvester.
Mary Beth Lafleur hit a trey for the Lady Jays to close the margin to 24-10 with 2:33 left in the quarter.
LCA answered with eight straight points off turnovers as the Lady Knight finished the period with a 32-10 advantage.
The pressure defense continued to slow the Lady Jays as LCA continued with a 7-0 run before Miller scored in the lane on back-to-back buckets to close the gap to 39-14.
The Lady Knights responded with a 12-0 surge, including a trey by Kam Borel.
Lady Jay Benoit scored on an inbounds’ pass, while Devillier later added a jumper and Lafleur hit a free throw as SEH closed the gap to 53-19.
LCA capped off an impressive first half with a 9-0 run to take a 62-19 lead into the locker room.
The Lady Knights domination continued with a 18-3 third quarter run.
LCA scored 16 atraight points in the lane and then added two free throws for an 80-19 advantage.
Beniot hit a free throw and Lafleur added two more from the charity stripe in the closing minute as the Lady Jays trailed 80-22 heading into the final period.
With the game out of reach, the Lady Jays rallied for nine points in the quarter with a trio of treys by Lafleur, who finished with 15 points.
Miller chipped in seven points on the night for the Lady Jays, while DeVillier added six points.
LCA was led in scoring by Autumn Chassion (18), Tamera Johnson (15), Porter (14) and Simpson (13).
The Lady Knights will enterain No. 8 Central Catholic of Morgan City at 6:30 p.m today in the quarterfinals,
LCA won the title last season with a 38-29 win over No. 2 Houma Christian.
The Lady Knight’s first title was over top-seed Houma Christian (56-46) in 2017.