Defense: South Beauregard traps Cougars
Published 10:21 am Tuesday, February 22, 2022
LONGVILLE — Facing a defensive stalwart in No. 10 Grant, South Beauregard showed they could lock down opponents as well, holding the Cougars without a field goal in the first half en route to a 61-18 Class 3A regional round playoff win on Monday.
The No. 7 Lady Ks (23-9) will travel to face No. 2 Wossman (25-5) in the quarterfinal round. Wossman advanced with a 75-50 win over No. 15 Donaldsonville. A win at Wossman would send South Beauregard back to the state semifinals.
The Lady K’s outscored Grant 21-1 in the first quarter, using pressure defense to force turnovers and generate easy transition baskets.
Dayla Simon, Emorie Fontenot and Kenzie Hudler made two steals each in the opening quarter to spark the South Beauregard defense. Fontenot and Hudler played at the back of the Lady K press but made plays from sideline-to-sideline.
“They are our bigs, but at South Beauregard we don’t care how big you are, if you are going to play you have to be able to move,” head coach Susan Johnson said. “They are very smart and are great readers. They do a great job. We did a good job of applying pressure. We know we are not a half-court team. We get tempo and momentum from our defense.
“Offensively, we ran the ball well but had some spots where we got flat. We weren’t finishing well.”
Grant (27-8) slowed the game down in the second quarter, when the Lady K’s outscored them 8-5 to take a 29-6 halftime lead.
South Beauregard blew the game open in the third quarter, closing the frame with a 17-0 run to extend its lead to 39 points. Jaden LeBouef scored nine of her team-high 17 points in the third quarter.
Hudler finished with 10 points and Raelyn Gunter added 11 for South Beauregard. Maddison Siddle led Grant with 7 points.
Johnson said the Lady K’s won’t change much in Thursday’s quarterfinal.
“We realize that whenever we try to change, we don’t come out on top,” she said. “So we’re going to continue to do the Lady K way.”