For the second straight game, Sam Houston used a late long ball to escape with a win, this time knocking off district rival and third seed LaGrange 42-38 in a Class 5A regional round game.

The No. 14 Broncos (23-6) advance to play at No. 6 Captain Shreve in the quarterfinal round. Shreve advanced with a 66-59 win over No. 11 Ruston.

With the game tied at 38 with 1:20 left, Jil Poullard drained a three to put the Broncos ahead 41-38. Alaina Bartie added a free throw with 24 seconds left.

LaGrange (23-5) was held scored on its last four possessions after Jeriah Warren made a pair of free throws with 1:52 left to tie the game.

The Broncos controlled the first half, outscoring the Gators 15-5 in the first quarter and taking a 21-9 lead into halftime. Poullard ended the first quarter with a three at the buzzer and scored all six Broncos second quarter points.

Sam Houston head coach Jason Jagneaux said he tried to slow things down after the Broncos lost to LaGrange in the regular season trying to play their usual up-tempo style.

“We pressed them the first time and gave up a lot of dribble penetration, I didn’t want to do that again,” he said. 

“We played more half-court defense, packed the line and said if you are going to beat us, you are going to have to do it from the 3-point line. In the first half, I thought we played with more intensity. (Gators head coach La’Keem Holmes) is a great coach, so I knew they were going to come back in the second half.”

The Gators did just that behind the play of Nadailyn Carrier, who scored 15 points in the third quarter as the Gators cut the Sam Houston lead down to 30-29 going into the fourth quarter.

LaGrange twice tied the game in the fourth quarter, but could never take the lead.

“We just settled down and played a little harder, we were a little timid in the first half, let them dictate and settled for outside shots,” Holmes said.

“In the second half, we were a lot better defensively and started to play our type of game.”

Poullard led the Broncos with 18 points. Bartie added 12.

Carrier finished with 18 to lead LaGrange.