After losing four seniors from last year’s semifinal team, South Beauregard has rebuilt its lineup and taken it a step further to reach the state final for the first time since 2017.

The No. 2 Lady K’s used a dominant performance from seniors Emorie Fontenot, Kenzie Hudler and Kaelyn Gunter to beat No. 6 Church Point 60-39 on Wednesday in the nonselect Division II semifinals at the state tournament in Hammond.

“This whole season has been about proving people wrong because we lost a big group last year,” Hudler said. “We lost four seniors and we lost in the semis.

“So even us as a team, we were questioning how we were going to do (it). We came back and (realized) we can handle this. We are a different team and a different group of leaders, but we can handle it. Coming back here that was our point. We were going to have fun and prove them wrong.”

Hudler and Fontenot, a pair of 6-foot posts, locked down the lane with both recording double-doubles. Hudler had 17 points and 16 rebounds, and Fontenot finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds. Gunter had 13 points and five assists.

South Beauregard outrebounded Church Point 44-31.

With a 16-game win streak, South Beauregard (27-7) will play the winner out No. 1 Wossman and No. 4 Albany on Saturday at 4 p.m. at the University Center on the campus of Southeastern Louisiana University.

“We just had to go back to the drawing board and how to get back there (state),” South Beauregard head coach Susan Johnson said. “We were so thrilled and so blessed just to get here with these three seniors leading the way.”

The first quarter was a back-and-forth battle as Church Point, playing in its first semifinal in program history, led twice early. Shauna Howard hit a 3-point shot for the game’s first points, and A’kirra Hagger’s 3 with 1:18 left in the quarter put the Bears up 11-10.

Church Point’s (27-7) last lead lasted 33 seconds as the Lady K’s took over with a 12-2 run with Madilynn Derouen coming off the bench to score five points during that span.

South Beauregard kept up the pressure with a 6-0 run to open the third quarter and a 12-2 run to start the fourth quarter led by six points from Fontenot.