Lady Panthers hold off Port Allen, 45-38

Looking to rebound from a 54-14 loss to Brusly 22 days earlier, Port Allen used a defensive wrinkle to disrupt the Lady Panther offense.

The triangle-and-2 defense geared to stopping Brusly's Tia Anderson and Laila Clark helped Port Allen stay in the game and make it competitive throughout.

However, the Brusly duo made enough plays in the fourth quarter to lead the Lady Panthers to a 45-38 win Saturday night.

Anderson led all scorers with 16 points, while Clark added 12. Dolphin Gaines paced Port Allen (12-11) with 13 points. Trinity Harrison added 12. 

"They went to triangle-and-2 taking Tia and Laila out of the game for the most part," Brusly coach Shawn Bradford said. "Me and my humbuggish ways, I believe in everybody that's on my team. The challenge was for everybody else to step up and do their job to lead us to victory without our two scoring leaders. It was a rough night but they did well."

Anderson drilled a three early in the first quarter, which capped Brusly's (25-4) 9-2 spurt to start the game.

Port Allen went on a 10-3 run to tie the game 12 with seven minutes left in the second quarter.

The Lady Panthers responded with a 7-0 run that gave them a 19-12 advantage. Port Allen closed the gap to 21-17 at halftime and the Lady Pels trailed 30-27 heading into the fourth quarter.

Clark and Anderson scored 12 of the team's 15 points in the fourth. Brusly led by as many as 12 in the final quarter.

"We won but we should've kept our intensity up on the defensive side a little bit more," Anderson said. "We just weren't doing the little stuff and that's what's been killing us all year."

Anderson finished her high school career 8-0 against the cross-parish rival.

I said it in the locker room when we got in. I said 'even though it was an ugly win, the seniors are still undefeated against Port Allen and we're going out like that," she said. "I think that's something you can hold on your back."

Port Allen coach Kim Cox said her team's lack of defense in the last game against Brusly is what prompted the switch to the triangle-and-2.

"We just went back to the drawing board and watched some film. We struggled to guard them man-to-man last time we played," Cox said. "We put in that triangle-and-2 today (Saturday) and it worked. The kids bought into the game plan and the kids guarded their butts off. It gave us a shot to win the game."