For Lacassine, Fairview, Pickering and Hathaway, semifinal games are par for the course. For Sulphur, its a new adventure
as the Lady Tors are in the final four of Class 5A basketball playoffs for the first time since 1998.
Those five teams will be playing for a trip to the state championships tonight.
Lacassine, Fairview and Hathaway will
be playing at the Lake Charles Regional at the Civic Center. Sulphur
will face Natchitoches
Central (26-4) at the Shreveport Regional at the CenturyLink
Center in Bossier City, while Pickering will face a hostile environment
against hometown St. Thomas Aquinas at the Hammond Regional.
Sulphur (27-3) has one senior starter, guard Hannah Cupit, but have grown up in a hurry and are on a 15-game winning streak.
“It feels great to be back in the semis. We try to focus on one game at a time with a young team, and they have done that,”
said Tors head coach Helen LeFevre.
“Ouachita (which Sulphur defeated 71-69
in the quarterfinal round) had a very good team, but we played well and
we had our
chances to win at the end and it fell our way. We are excited to
be here but know that we are going to face a tough Natchitoches
Central team.
“They have a very good post player, they are guard strong, they can shoot and they can penetrate. They are going to play a
full-court man-to-man against us. We are going to have to be ready to handle their pressure.”
Sulphur practiced at Burton Coliseum
Thursday before departing for Shreveport and will have a practice at the
arena this morning.
“We get to shoot at the arena in
morning,” LeFevre said. “We went to Burton to give our kids a little
while to get adjusted
to shooting in a big arena. They seemed to shoot well. (Friday) we
are going to get there early, watch a game before we play
to kind of take in the atmosphere. The girls seemed focus.”
The big stage will be a familiar
setting for the area’s other four semfinalists. Fairview and Lacassine
both won at the Lake
Charles regional last year before meeting in the state
championship game in Ruston. Hathaway will be making its fourth
semifinal
appearance in the past five years.
Fairview (42-1) will play Florien
(38-3) in a rematch of a Class B semifinal last year. The Panthers
return all five starters
from last season, including reigning Class B Player of the Year
Natosha Morvant. The Panthers have won 31 straight games since
losing to Class 4A quarterfinalist DeRidder on Nov. 29. Fairview
has won six consecutive state championships.
Lacassine (38-1) will be playing
District 7-B rival Hathaway (27-7) for the sixth time this season. The
Cardinals swept all
five previous games and have not lost since Nov. 20, winning their
last 27. Their lone loss came to DeRidder. Hathaway’s seven
losses have come to Lacassine, Fairview and DeRidder.
Pickering (28-3) reached the semifinals
last year before losing to Iota at the Lake Charles Regional. The Red
Devils are led
by returning Class 2A all-state point guard Sami Thomas. Pickering
beat St. Thomas Aquinas by one point in the regional round
last season.
Action at the Civic Center will get under way at 2:45 p.m. with a Class 1A semifinal between Vermilion Catholic (26-6) and
North Central (26-4). A Class 3A semifinal between Baker (24-5) and Abbeville (27-6) will follow at 4:30 p.m., followed by
Fairview-Florien at 6:15 p.m. and Hathaway-Lacassine at 8 p.m.
The regional will continue Saturday with three boys semifinals.