By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

ST. JAMES – As far as starting a half goes, St. James coach Amy Blanchard couldn’t have really scripted it any better.

Her Lady Wildcats began the third quarter on a 14-0 run, establishing a lead and rendering an almost disastrous first half all but a distant memory. St. James survived a nip and tuck second half to emerge from the regional round of the Class 3A playoffs with a 54-47 win at home over Vermilion Catholic.

“I told them that we had to come out and play like wild animals,” said Blanchard, who has now guided St. James to the quarterfinal round for the second straight season.

St. James (22-9) will now travel to face No. 2 seeded Madison to determine who will advance to the Ladies’ Top 28 tournament in Hammond.

The two teams went back and forth in the first quarter, but North Vermilion (23-7) began to pull ahead as the Wildcats bogged down offensively, largely running cold from the perimeter.

“We were relying on the three,” said Blanchard. “And it gets contagious. It’s like, ‘No, that’s not what we’ve been practicing.’”

North Vermilion led 16-11 after ending the first quarter on a 10-0 run. Compounding matters was the foul trouble that the Wildcats’ Brandi Jeffrey and Anika Duronslet found themselves in. Each committed two fouls in the first quarter. Blanchard elected to sit each in the second to preserve them for the second half.

Without them, St. James struggled mightily to score, mustering only six second quarter points and trailing 29-17 at halftime.

“I knew that if we could keep it relatively close with them on the bench, and get them back for the entire second half, we’d be okay,” said Blanchard. “We just didn’t want to let it get too wide open.”

But once the third quarter began, St. James answered the bell. A rested Jeffrey scored six quick points, and Duronslet converted a three point play to cut the deficit to three. After a steal, Shanequa Jasmin scored to make it 29-28, and Jeffrey gave her team its first lead since the opening quarter with a steal and a layup. A Markeisha Keller foul shot capped a 14-0 run.

“It was freezing on that bench,” said Jeffrey. “I felt like I was letting my team down. I had to do something.”

The run spanned the first three minutes of the quarter and was fueled by the Wildcats’ furious full court press.

“At halftime I told them that if we score, we can press. We weren’t scoring and we weren’t able to get into our game in the first half,” said Blanchard.

North Vermilion regrouped and took a 39-38 lead into the fourth quarter. Jumpers by Jeffrey and Shakira Braxton gave St. James a 42-41 advantage.

The Patriots’ Morgan Breaux answered with a pair of free throws, and teammate Mimi Bridges did the same to push North Vermilion to a 45-42 lead. After a pair of free throws by Jalesia Jones, St. James regained the lead, 46-45, on a Duronslet putback.

The Wildcats led 48-47 with under a minute left and pulled the ball out on the perimeter, forcing North Vermilion to foul. Keller made a free throw and missed the second.

But St. James rebounded her miss and she’d get two more chances. She made one of two to make it 50-47. North Vermilion was called for a travel with 36.7 seconds left, and Jeffrey drew a foul and made two free throws to push things out of reach.

Jeffrey scored 24 points to lead all scorers. Courtney Chargois led North Vermilion with 18 points.