Hot start, cold finish: Shots don’t fall for Lake Arthur
Published 5:00 pm Saturday, February 6, 2021
- Photo Credit
Rodrick Anderson
LAKE ARTHUR — From the second quarter into the third, Lake Arthur could hardly miss, but the Tigers went cold down the stretch Friday in Lafayette Christian’s 62-57 District 6-2A win.
Lake Arthur (25-4, 5-1) shot 80 percent from the field in the second quarter while Deonna Brister scored 12 of her game-high 29 points, eclipsing 2,000 career points. After leading by as many as 14 points in the third quarter, the Tigers made 2 of 12 shots in the fourth quarter.
“When you have people that normally are knocking stuff down, and you can’t make but two buckets in the fourth quarter, it is hard to beat anybody much less a team as good as LCA,” Lake Arthur head coach Vickie Sketoe said. “I don’t know if down the stretch we got rattled. We kind of got out of our game plan.”
After Brister picked up her third foul on an offensive charge late in the third quarter, the Knights (17-5, 5-1) went on a 12-0 run to take a 50-46 lead with 5:53 left in the game.
“We were pushing it and taking it inside,” Sketoe said. “Then we quit doing that when Deonna picked up her third foul.
“Everybody just started stressing out a little bit and was worried they were going to foul out. I think we relaxed a little bit right there.”
Vivian Sketoe made 2 of 3 free throws after being fouled beyond the 3-point arc to tie the score at 54 with 3:24 remaining, and Darrah Broussard had a three-point play with 1:31 left to cut the Knights’ lead to 58-57. But LCA went 4-for-4 from the free-throw line in the final 30 seconds. Sketoe finished with 11 points and seven assists, and Broussard added 12 points.
Lake Arthur held LCA’s Jada Richard to six points in the first half, but she scored 15 in the second half and finished with 21 points, and center Monique Patterson had 13 points and eight rebounds.
“We were supposed to be denying Jada (Richard) the basketball,” Sketoe said. “We just didn’t do that. She just played one-on-one and either scored or dished.”
LCA twice led by as many four points in the first quarter, but the Tigers hit their first seven shots of the second quarter and led 29-17 on a Brooke Daboval 3-pointer with 1:26 left in the first half.
The Tigers opened the second half with a trio of 3s, one by Sketoe and two from Brister, to take a 38-24 lead.
The loss forces the Tigers to wait until next for a shot at claiming at least a share of the district championship. Lake Arthur hosts Notre Dame on Tuesday.
“You just have to get ready to go Monday or this weekend and get ready for the next one,” Sketoe said.
Lafayette Christian 62
Lake Arthur 57
Lafayette Christian (17-5, 5-1): Jada Richard 21, Monique Patterson 13. Lake Arthur (25-4, 5-1): Deonna Brister 29, Darrah Broussard 12, Vivian Sketoe 11.
Rodrick Anderson/American Press
