Lady Warriors advance to the second round

 The Lady Warriors faced a team that lived and died by the three point basket in the first round of the 2017 LHSAA Girls Basketball Playoffs Thursday night and won 50-33 to advance to a second round match-up against Madison Prep in Baton Rouge.
 French Settlement came into Durham Hall road tested as they played many of their early season games on the road because of the flood that impacted the area last August. "It was kind of a negative for us at first playing so many road games, but one thing it did it kinda got us ready for the road enviroment," said head coach Daniel Martin of the flood. "And so looking back on it, I'm kinda glad it worked out the way it did."
 "We're just gonna come out and play our game," Martin said before the game. "We're not going to change up a lot. We debated on do you change up your game to try to play against the opponent's strenghts, or do you play your game and play to your strengths. I think we're just gonna come out and play our game, and hopefully our game will be enough for us."
 The strength of his team was the three point basket. The Lady Lions scored nine baskets from beyond the arc and only scored two baskets from inside the arc. They added two points from the free throw line. Bailey Kapinski scored four three pointers on her way to lead the team with 14 points. Dannah Martin scored 11 points on the night with her first nine coming from three point range. The team's only points in the third quarter came on one basket from Courtney Dupuy.
 "I thought we played hard," Martin said after the game. "We had too many mental mistakes in the game. Their athleticism and their size turned out to be an issue for us. We kinda live by and die by (the three pointers). "We have to depend on outside shots. And it fell for us early, it didn't fall for us late. That was the big difference."
 On the other end of the court, Lady Warrior head coach Ted Fontenot used half time adjustments to hold on for the win. "We told them we need to take care of the ball, and we just needed to watch out for the three point shooters they had," he said. We knew we had to key on their three point shooters and get some long rebounds. In the beginning of the game, we didn't do a great job of that, but then we started catching on to do better job of getting rebounds there."
 "All in all it was a good night," Fontenot added. "We shot the ball well and took some good shots. Sanaa was picking them apart with her passes, and Alexis came off the bench and gave us three big baskets."  
 Sanaa St. Andre had 15 points on the night to lead her team, and Ke'Maesha St. Andre finished the night with 14. Setorie St. Andre had eight points, Alexis Davis had six, and Treshunda Joseph and Brianna Hargrove each had three.
 Oakdale won tip and got the opening score as Sanaa got the basket and was fouled. KeMaesha St. Andre forced the turnover and drove coast-to-coast for the score to go up 5-0. French Settlement got a three pointer three minutes and change into the game for its first points of the night then went on a
8-2 run. The opening frame ended with Oakdale leading 15-11. 
 KeMaesha St. Andre intercepted the ball and capitalizes at the basket. Oakdale then scored on the next possession to go up by 10 at 21-11. Dannah Martin scores her second three pointer as Oakdale called a timeout leading 21-14 with 5:47 until the half. Payton Clovatre got three pointer coming out of the timeout. Martin then scored another basket from beyond the arc to make it a one possession game. The Lady Lions trailed 28-22 at the half.
 Sanaa St. Andre drilled a three pointer to go up by 10. KeMaesha got the rebound off of Sanaa's missed three pointer and got the basket as the buzzer went off at the end of the third quarter. Joseph made both free throws to go up 39-25 as a timeout was called on the court with 7:20 remaining in the game. Kapinski scored another three pointer, and Setorie St. Andre scored to go up by 15. 
 Sixth seed in Class 2A Madison Prep defeated Welsh 58-35. In other action Fairview will play in the second round against an Avoyelles Public Charter team that won 49-36 over Bell City in Class B. Elizabeth also won in the first round of the Class C playoffs as they beat Gibsland-Coleman 51-39 and will now face second seed Summerfield.