Lady Bengals Win On Sophomore Night
The LSU Eunice Lady Bengals fought and scrapped and finally pulled out a 67-53 victory over rival Baton Rouge Community College on Sophomore Night Wednesday.
With the win, the Lady Bengals improved to 8-18 overall, 4-3 in Miss Lou Conference play with road games against Southern-Shreveport and Delgado left in the regular season.
It was the final home game for sophomores Erin Maddox, Morgan Eddleman, Amber Richard and Katie Lemieux.
The Lady Bears jumped out to a 13-2 first quarter lead before the Lady Bengals responded with a 7-2 surge sparked by two free throws from Becca Brooks to go with buckets from Madelyn LeJeune and Lemieux.
Baton Rouge answered with a 6-2 run to push ahead 21-11, but Lemieux scored four points before teammates Brooks and Abby Jolie hit back-to-back three pointers as LSU Eunice pulled within two points in the closing minute of the first period.
Ceclia Sterling hit a three-pointer 20 seconds later to give Baton Rouge a 26-21 advantage as the game moved to the second period.
Jolie and Brooks both nailed three-pointers to keep the Lady Bengals close before Lemieux hit two free throws and Eddleman inside to force a 31-31 tie at the 5:12 mark of the second period.
LSU Eunice then exploded for a 12-2 run to close the half, sparked by seven points by Lemieux, a put-back by Macy Hoffpauir and a three-pointer with four seconds left by Jolie.
The Lady Bengals took a 43-35 advantage into the locker room and then continued its scoring barrage with a 9-4 run to start the third period for a 52-39 lead, including four points by Lemieux, a three-point play from LeJeune and a baseline bucket by Eddleman.
Baton Rouge battled back with an 8-0 run to close the gap to 52-47 at the end of the third period.
Lemieux hit a three-pointer and Jolie added a jumper to begin the fourth quarter, while LeJeune and Brooks added buckets as the Lady Bengals pushed ahead, 61-49 with 5:23 left.
Baton Rouge's Smith hit four points to close the margin to 10 points, but Brooks hit back-to-back three-pointers in the final minute to seal the 67-53 win.
Smith finished with 18 points for the Lady Bears, while Terriel Ross added 12 points.
Lemieux finished with 25 points as the top scorer, while Brooks chipped in 12 and Jolie added 11 points.
LeJeune contributed nine points, Eddleman added eight points and Hoffpauir had two points.
