Lacassine beats Pitkin to return to Class B state championship game

Published 8:00 am Tuesday, March 10, 2026

No. 4 Lacassine built up a big lead in a physical Class B semifinal game on Monday and held off No. 8 Pitkin in the fourth quarter to win 72-63 at the Louisiana High School Athletic Association boys state basketball tournament.

Lacassine (29-6) will play 17-time state champion No. 2 Zwolle at 6 p.m. on Friday in the finals. Lacassine is the first Southwest Louisiana team to play for a state championship in back-to-back seasons since Washington-Marion did it in 2016 and 2017.

Lacassine led by as many as 15 points in the fourth quarter but got into foul trouble as the Tigers (24-17) picked up the defensive pressure and cut the Cardinals’ lead down to five three times. Sawyer Bourgeois, Luke Bellon, and Maliki Broussard picked up their fourth fouls in the final quarter.

“I thought it was a gritty game,” Lacassine head coach Micah Rasberry said. “Tip your hat to Pitkin; they have a lot of throw-down and made us work.

“That is their calling card, but I thought my guys battled. We rallied through some tough situations, foul situations, and whatnot. That has been a theme for us as well. We got in foul trouble, so that changed a little bit going into the fourth quarter. We just gutted it out.”

With 29 seconds left, Pitkin’s Joshua Daugharty hit a 3-pointer. Pitkin was forced to foul to preserve precious seconds, but Remy Prudhomme and Broussard made a pair of free throws in the final 30 seconds to secure the win for Lacassine.

Lacassine spread the ball around offensively with four players scoring at least 10 points or recording three or more assists. Junior point guard Broussard led with 21 points, 11 rebounds, and five assists. Austin Fontenot added 19 points, including five three-pointers, while Prudhomme finished with 16 points and Shyheef Willis scored 10 with eight rebounds.

“I feel like we are selfless,” Broussard said. “If I drive and they are all over me,

“I am going to look down to my teammates. With him (Austin Fontenot) in the corner, he is making all those shots now.”

Fontenot felt a little uneasy at first. He and made just 2 of 9 three-pointers in the first half, but got hot at the right time. He made three in a span of one and a half minutes in the third quarter to give the Cardinals their first double-digit lead.

“I was a little nervous when we first game out, but after the second half rolled around, I started feeling it,” Fontenot said. “It was a great team effort. We all knew the game plan, and just came out and executed it.”

Pitkin thrived on offensive rebounds in the second quarter, leading to 10 of their 15 points and a 22-19 lead with 3:33 left in the quarter after Kolt Doyle scored on a putback. But the Cardinals battled back on threes by Fontenot and Prudhomme and led 31-26 at halftime. Lacassine didn’t allow any points off offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter.

“It took us a while to get the defensive intensity where it needed to be,” Rasberry said. “The game played up and down.

“I thought that we were in a sticky half-court game there for a while that favored our opponent. They are big and physical, and they were just dominating the boards in the first half. By getting the game up and down, it helped us out a little bit. Those are shots that we are comfortable with.”