Politopoulou leads Lady Bengals to comeback win in season finale
Box Score
The LSU Eunice women’s basketball team ended the season on a high note Saturday night, with a thrilling, come-from-behind 77-74 victory over Southern-Shreveport in Miss-Lou Conference play in the final game of the 2012-2013 season.
A six-point halftime deficit was stretched to Southern-Shreveports’ highest lead at the 13:20 mark in the second half, when the visitors held a 54-39 advantage.
From there, sophomore Lida Politopoulou scored nine of the final 17 baskets for the Lady Bengals, including her final bucket – a three-pointer with 1:12 to go that gave LSU Eunice the lead.
The three-pointer was her seventh of the second half and ninth of the game, tying the program record for most three-point baskets made in a game, which was set in January 2006 by Amanda Romero.
The go-ahead bucket also gave Politopoulou her 32nd point of the game, tying her career-high she set back on Feb. 20 when she made eight three-point baskets in a win over Delgado.
The Lady Bengals (8-19 overall, 4-8 Miss-Lou) made it a three-point game with 40 seconds to play on a lay-in by Kate Faulk.
Southern-Shreveport cut the lead to one, 75-74, with eight seconds left, but missed their and-one free throw attempt.
Out of the Southern-Shreveport timeout, Lady Bengal head coach Michael Bari drew up the home run pass down court off the inbounds play, and Faulk chased down the pass before being fouled. Her two free throws gave the Lady Bengals a three-point lead with four seconds to play before Southern-Shreveports’ final attempt was off the mark as the final horn sounded.
“It was a great game. We got down early, but we fought back hard,” Bari said.
“We got rebounds when we needed to. For the first time this year, we stayed within our offense down the stretch,” he added.
The Lady Bengals finished the night shooting 40 percent (25-for-63) from the floor, but 52 percent (13-for-25) from behind the three-point line.
Southern-Shreveport finished shooting 43 percent (26-for-61) from the floor and 41 percent (7-for-17) from the three-point line.
After Politopoulou’s 32 points, Meghan Cross finished with 11 points for the Lady Bengals and Chesley Dubroc notched 10 points on the night. Taylor Hurd and Brooke Richard each tallied seven points.
Faulk finished with four points, all in the final minute, while Victoria Fontenot and Feleshia Walters each had three points to round out the LSU Eunice scoring.
Southern-Shreveport saw Tytionna Pratt score 21 points, but just six in the second half, and Triana Wilridge score 20 points to lead the way.
