The Mamou Lady Demons hosted the opening round of the basketball playoffs Thursday night as the Vikings came North by Northeast. The theme of the first half was the Demons forcing turnovers, but they could not capitalize as the ball rattled off the rim. The Mamou band providesd the halftime entertainment from the corner of Section A belting out such tunes as Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror." As the lyrics of the song suggest, the Lady Demons during the break were taking a look at themselves and then make that change in their style of play on the night. However, they fell victim by a final score of 60-48.
"In the first quarter, we couldn't convert the easy (shots)," said head coach Mark Temple. "The free throws hurt us and (Northeast's) size. They had a good inside presence... I appreciate my girls and love their effort. They gave their all."
Mikeisha Causey scored a basket for Northeast to take a 2-0 lead with 4:26 left in the quarter. The fans at that point began encouraging the Lady Demons, "We gotta make our shots." Darelzray Wilson responded as she laid it up and in under the net to tie the game at 2 to get the boisterous crowd on its feet. Arkieyanah Thomas responded as well as she stole the basketball away and scored to tie the game at 4 in the waning seconds of the opening quarter. The quarter ends with the Lady Vikings leading by 2 at 6-4.
At the 4:52 mark Thomas headed to the line and split a pair of free throws cutting the score to 11-7, then Bellard drained a three pointer to cut the deficit within 1 point. The Lady Vikings increased the lead on back to back to back scores and started seizing control of the game. With 3:40 to go in the half, the Lady Vikings lead 18-10. Bellard added two points from the charity line with 3:03 in the half to make the score 18-12. It was a good year for Louisiana but a bad score for Mamou.
Thomas drained a three pointer, and the score was 20-15 with 1:58 to go in the half. The Lady Vikings took a double-digit lead heading into halftime with the score being 25-15. Lauri Kight started the second half by muscleing her way on the court to put up baskets. Mamou called a timeout at the 5:53 mark with the team down 31-15 and got on the board in the half with a basket from Tia Gallow.
With Mamou down 34-22, the team was again starting to impose its will on defense giving the offense a chance to get back in the game. However, it appeared the Lady Vikings were adjusting on both ends of the court.
Gallow scored from under the net and was fouled. At the 1:43 mark of the third quarter, Mamou was down again by 10 points. Bellard drained another trey cutting the deficit to single digits, but the Lady Vikings answered. Kiajah Wilson again brought the deficit within single digits. That is how the third quarter ended with the Lady Vikings up 42-33.
The final eight minutes of play began with "Let's go defense" echoing through the Mamou gym. The score hovered around the same point margin in the first half of the final quarter of play, but the lady Vikings broke the half century mark on the scoreboard with just over 4 minutes remaining in the game. The visiting team led 51-37. Bellard would not go away quietly as she knocked down a couple of three pointers to close out the game, but it was proverbially too little too late.
The Lady Demons will now have to wait until next season to hang another banner from the rafters commerating a trip to the Sweet 16. "We had a good season at 22-9 and are still young," said Temple after the game. "We got a lot of building blocks around us."
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