The 2023-2024 brought much success to the Lake Charles College Prep girls basketball program. The Trailblazers won the most games in program history (14) and hosted a playoff game for the first time, but LCCP fell short of their first postseason win on Thursday.

No. 19 St. Michael the Archangel upset the 14th-ranked Trailblazers 38-34 on Thursday in the first round of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association select Division II playoffs.

It was the Trailblazers (14-13) first postseason game since an 87-25 loss at Delhi in 2017 and only the second in program history.

“This is a building block for this school,” LCCP head coach Tony Johnson said. “They hadn’t made the playoffs in I don’t know when, but we almost had a chance to be in the second round.

“Give credit to St. Michael because they came in here and played hard, and we played hard. It came down to the end. That is what happens. We missed a few there, and they made a few.

“Overall, on the season with the injuries and everything, I think we had a successful season. They got to learn from this. We have a lot of kids coming back, and we just got to work and do the things we are supposed to do in the summer, improve on some of our fundamentals and we are going to be fine.”

Lizzie Brumfield led St. Michael (11-14) with 13 points, while Reyonna Celestine was LCCP’s top scorer with nine points.

LCCP held St. Michael to 1 of 15 shooting and forced eight turnovers in the fourth quarter. Leila Sanders got a steal and layup with 5:42 left in the game for the Trailblazers’ only lead in the second half after trailing by as many as seven points in the third quarter. Leniyah Banks hit a pair of free throws to tie the game at 33-33, but the Trailblazers went without a field goal in the final four minutes.

“We missed quite a few easy shots,” Johnson said. “In the fourth quarter, I don’t know if we got tired or whatever.

“The press worked for us tonight. We played hard, but we just didn’t play hard enough.”

St. Michael took the lead, 35-34, for good on a free throw by Katelyn O’brien with 3:14 left in the game.

The Warriors will travel to No. 3 Madison Prep (22-10) in the regional round.