By Bret H. McCormick
ALEXANDRIA – The Ruston Lady Bearcats really needed a victory Friday night as they looked to move up in the Division I power rankings and secure a playoff berth.
Gioia Tatum nearly shot the Lady ‘Cats to an improbable comeback win.
Tatum knocked down five 3-pointers and scored a team-high 15 points, but it wasn’t quite enough as Ruston (11-13, 1-3 District 2-5A) fell to Alexandria Senior High 46-40.
The sophomore guard’s fifth and final 3 came right at the 3-minute mark in the fourth quarter and cut the Lady Trojans’ lead to just two points, the closest Ruston had been since trailing 9-8 in the first quarter.
ASH (21-6, 3-1) answered with an and-1 by its own sophomore guard, Destiny Vories, to pull ahead 37-32 with 2:47 to play in the game, but Ruston responded less than 10 seconds later with an and-1 by senior Kiersynce McNeal.
The Lady ‘Cats went cold from the field after that, however, as ASH ran off five straight points to take a 42-35 lead and was able to put the game away with late free throws.
Ruston coach LaShanda Cooper said her team’s youth and inexperience played a role in Friday night’s outcome.
“We made some really bad decisions,” said Cooper, whose roster features five sophomores and freshmen.
The two teams traded runs in the first quarter as ASH took a 6-0 lead. Ruston didn’t get on the scoreboard until the 3:32 mark in the quarter when Tatum sparked an 8-0 with two 3-pointers sandwiched around a Bailee Harrison bucket.
The Lady Trojans then ran off 10 points in a row to close the quarter as Cassie Benoit and Thamerin Balthazar knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers and Jamaari Collins turned two steals into two transition baskets to give ASH a 16-6 lead after one quarter.
“We stressed in the beginning that we truly needed this win and we couldn’t get off to a slow start, and that’s what we did,” Cooper said.
Ruston’s offensive struggles, which were exacerbated by nine first-half turnovers, continued in the second quarter as they scored just three points to fall behind 25-11 at the half.
Cooper said a combination of a young team’s early nerves mixed with the atmosphere in the ASH gym along with what the Lady Cats had on the line caused them have some “really bad turnovers early.”
Ruston trailed by as many as 17 in the third quarter before closing on a 9-0 run – sparked again by two Tatum 3-pointers – to cut the lead to 28-20 heading into the final quarter.
Friday night’s loss kept the Lady Bearcats perilously on the postseason bubble as they sat 29th in the power ratings, one spot outside of the playoffs, with road games against Ouachita and West Monroe remaining on the schedule.
“We’ve got to win ‘em all,” Cooper said of the remaining games. “This would have put us in a good position.”
