North Vermilion waited 40 years in between appearances at the girls basketball state tournament.
The No. 3 Patriots, who lost 53-44 to No. 2-seeded LaGrange in the Division II nonselect semifinals on Wednesday at the University Center in Hammond, expect to return in exactly 12 months.
“We’ve been working for this since middle school,” said junior Reagan Semien, who led the Patriots with 12 points, three steals and three rebounds. “We’ll be back next year.”
North Vermilion (27-4) center Stevie Brasseaux, one of two seniors along with McKenzie Marceaux, picked up two fouls in the first quarter and was called for her fourth with 6:23 left in the third quarter and the Gators ahead 25-16.
“That hurt us, not having one of the best rebounders in the state on the court,” Patriots coach Jack LeBlanc said. “There were a couple of fouls that could’ve gone either way. Unfortunately, they were called on her. We struggled to rebound, especially in the second half.”
In the third quarter, a long line of North Vermilion students filed into the arena after arriving late due to a pile-up on the Interstate 10 Basin Bridge. As that happened and the fans grew excited, sophomore Ashante Rose (10 points) made a personal 6-0 run to get within 30-24.
“She’s done that all season,” LeBlanc said of Rose, who came off the bench. “She missed the first half of it (foot).”
Despite playing only 22 minutes due to foul trouble, Brasseaux scored nine points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Marceaux, who scored seven points, only attempted three shots and didn’t practice for the game because of a long-term flu virus.
“I felt the first team to get to 50 points would win,” LeBlanc said. “Our game plan was to keep it low scoring. We got down seven at the half and kind of stayed down. I knew their physical play in the half-court would give us problems.”
LaGrange (28-4), which will face Wossman for the title, scored 42 points in the paint and had a 17-3 advantage on fast breaks. The teams combined for 60 turnovers.
The Gators shot nearly 90% (8 of 9 FG) in the fourth quarter when they outscored North Vermilion 21-18. The Patriots sank five of six field goals to begin the third quarter. A Brasseaux bucket with one minute remaining got North Vermilion within 47-40 after Semien scored five straight points.
“This is a phenomenal school to be support-wise and with the community,” LeBlanc said. “You can tell that from the people in the stands here. The past five years have been phenomenal. Coach Mya (Touchet) and I decided to do this together.
“You can’t list another coach as the co-head coach, but that’s what she really is. All 13 of these girls played for coach Mya in middle school. We’ve taken the mantra of developing talent rather than collecting talent, as some other programs (do).”
