Faith Johnson led South Beauregard with 18 points and 14 rebounds in the Lady K's 59-52 loss at Iowa High School on Friday, Jan. 17, 2025. (Rodrick Anderson / American Press)

The South Beauregard Lady K’s had a few changes this high school basketball season with a new head coach and three new starters, but they hardly missed a beat.

The Lady K’s are 21-11 and working towards a third consecutive state tournament appearance.

“We knew going into this season we were going to be using younger kids that have always been good players but were behind really, really good players in the past,” South Beauregard head coach Sarah Marcantel said. “They didn’t have a lot of court experience.

“We knew that inexperience was going to be a challenge this year, but they have grown tremendously and really stepped up to the challenge.”

They took the first step Thursday with a 66-28 bi-district playoff win over No. 27 Plaquemine and will host No. 11 West Feliciana at 6 p.m. Monday. South Beauregard seeks to advance to the quarterfinals for the 11th time in 12 seasons.

“I feel we’re very capable of making it back to Hammond,” Marcantel said. “We’ll have to get past Sterlington in the quarters.

“If we beat West Feliciana Monday, I feel like it will be Sterlington in the quarters. And we’ll have to go up there, which is a long trip, but it’s very doable.”

South Beauregard has held six of its last seven opponents to 35 or fewer points.

“I feel like our defense is very, very strong,” Marcantel said. “Our defense is tenacious.”

Junior guard Jolie Baumgarten (10.5 ppg) and sophomore guard Faith Johnson (11.3 ppg) lead a team with four underclassmen in the starting lineup. Marcantel said her team has started to hit their stride lately. Johnson scored 29 points Thursday against Plaquemine.

“We have some really quick guards, and I feel like we run our fast break very well,” she said. “It’s our strength. We’ve been shooting the ball pretty well. As far as pushing the ball up the floor, it’s just now starting to click for them, which is perfect timing for playoffs.”

While the Lady K’s have speed and a solid offense, their lack of height will be tested by West Feliciana’s 5-foot11 Samaria Berry (16.6 ppg) and 5-10 Ariannah Smith (10.1 ppg).

“They have a couple of taller girls that we’re going to need to make sure we rebound,” Marcantel said. “We have to make sure that we put pressure on them to force them to turn the ball over.”

History

Lake Charles College Prep made history Thursday with the first postseason win in its 10-year history. The No. 22 Trailblazers beat No. 11 Peabody 38-35 and will travel Monday to Covington to play No. 6 Archbishop Hannan.

They trailed 1716 at halftime and Anya Godette and Auriyon Lambert combined for 11 points in the third quarter to put LCCP up 28-25. Lambert finished with 16 points and Godette added 15.

Close call

Non-select Division I No. 10 Sulphur had a close call but beat No. 23 East St. John 52-49.

The Tors (25-3) trailed 19-5 in the first quarter, but Ivy Broussard scored 10 of her 16 points in the second quarter to cut East St. John’s (18-11) lead to 28-24 at halftime. Sulphur outscored East St. John 36-19 in the second and third quarters.

Tough second round

No. 5 Barbe (30-3) breezed through the first round on Thursday with a 66-32 win over No. 28 Ruston but faces a tough challenge in the regional round.

Barbe will host No. 12 Northshore (24-6), which has one of the top players in the state in North Texas signee Cherie Spencer, a 5-9 guard. Spencer has scored more than 2,000 career points.