One more to go

VILLE PLATTE -- The Ville Platte High Lady Bulldogs are one step closer to a District 5-3A title after easily dismissing the Northwest Lady Raiders 47-27 here Monday night.
With the final regular and district season win, the Lady Bulldogs will now have to play an extra game against the Eunice High Lady Bobcats to determine who enters the playoffs as the district champion.
An important point of this title game, is that the winner gets one extra power point towards their playoff ranking.
Earlier this season Ville Platte split with Eunice, winning at home 63-44, while losing on the road by two, 38-36.
The two will tangle once more tonight at 6 p.m. at Northwest High School.
“We did not play well against Eunice at their place,” said Lady Bulldog head coach Dot Doulet. “In order for us to win tonight, we are going to have to play with a lot more enthusiasm. They have a good team. We cannot make the same mistakes we did the last time we played.”
Against Northwest, Ville Platte looked sluggish to start the game. The Lady Bulldogs and the Lady Raiders were tied at 5-5 half way through the first quarter.
Neither team could produce much offense the rest of the quarter. As the horn sounded to end the period, Ville Platte held a 9-7 lead.
“We tried to lay back in our zone to start the game,” stated Doulet. “On offense we tried to be patient and get the best shot available. We saw that particular strategy was not working, so in the second quarter, we inserted our guard, Jasmine Landry and began to play more up tempo.”
Going to a more aggressive defensive look sparked the Lady Bulldogs in the second quarter.
Ville Platte opened the stanza on a 10-0 run and began the process of pulling away from Northwest.
The Lady Raiders had no answer until the 2:39 mark, when they finally got back on board to make the score 19-9.
Northwest managed to get three more points, on a basket and a free throw to cut the lead to 19-12 with 1:23 left in the half.
However, Ville Platte tallied five points in the final 29 seconds, with center Kealogah Calvin asserting herself under the basket.
Calvin hit a basket and converted on a three-point play to give Ville Platte a 24-12 lead going into the locker room.
The second half opened with the Lady Bulldogs continuing to put pressure on the Lady Raiders, causing numerous turnovers and bad shot selection.
Ville Platte’s Kabreonna Stevens and Miya McKinney each sank a three-point basket and Makayla Ardoin popped the net on a deep two-point basket to give the Lady Bulldogs a 32-12 lead at the 6:05 mark of the third quarter.
Northwest tried to keep pace with Ville Platte, but did not have enough fire power to overcome the deficit. As the third quarter came to a close, the Lady Bulldogs owned a commanding 38-17 lead.
With the game in hand, it seemed as if Ville Platte relaxed a little to start the fourth quarter.
Northwest came out of the break and began to put pressure on Ville Platte, going on an 8-0 run to start the final quarter.
This mini-run by the Lady Raiders showed that they were not going away easy.
The Lady Bulldogs took notice and quelled the Lady Raider comeback attempt by scoring five of the last seven points of the game to seal the win and the opportunity to play Eunice tonight for the district title.
“Our girls came into tonight really focused,” commented Doulet. “They knew what was at stake and played with a sense of urgency. We are going to have to come out this focused against Eunice. We are going to have to be more aggressive this time around and take advantage of free throw opportunities. It is going to come down to the basics if we want to walk away with the district crown.”