RESERVE — On paper, Riverside Academy and Archbishop Hannan appeared to be a pretty good match-up.

The Lady Rebels were the No. 16 seed with a 14-12 record; Hannan was No. 17 at 16-13.

On the court; however, youth and inexperience are hard to overcome.

Riverside, playing without a single junior or senior on the roster and with one of its top scorers on the bench in a knee brace, gave Hannan as much as it could. But Hannan, with its five seniors, knew how to take advantage of Riverside’s miscues down the stretch to take a 48-44 win.

The Hawks broke away from a 44-44 tie in the final 1:13.

“It sucks,” said Riverside sophomore Briley Becker. “I thought we played hard. We played as a team. We’re young. We know everybody’s coming back so we’ll be good for the next two or three years.”

It was a tough night for the ladies of  St. John the Baptist Parish. Four teams went into the first round of the playoffs, but only West St. John survived. The Rams, the No. 7 seed in the Class 2A bracket, defeated South Plaquemines 70-38 to advance to the regionals. West St. John (19-7) will host No. 22 seed Pickering (17-13) at 6 p.m. Monday.

No. 28 seed St. Charles Catholic lost to No. 5 Rayville 64-31.

In Class 5A, No. 29 seed East St. John lost to No. 4 Barbe 49-30.

Riverside had battled back from a slow start to challenge the Hawks at the end.

Hot-shooting Hannan took a 19-6 lead in the first quarter, but Riverside rallied in the second quarter, outscoring Hannan 14-7 to make a game of it. The Rebels trailed 26-20 at the half.

“Coach (Kathy Luke) gave us a little pep talk at the half,” Becker said. “She told us that was nothing.”

The Rebels had trouble keeping up in the third quarter, letting Hannan pull away to a 36-25 lead.

Riverside fought hard in the final quarter. Dannecia Nora, who led the Rebels in scoring with 22 points, scored eight of her points in the final period before fouling out with 1:13 remaining.

Her back-to-back jumpers, along with Becker’s 3-pointer, pulled Riverside to within 4 with less than two minutes remaining. Bria Neal drove the lane for a jumper, drew a foul and made the free throw with 1:36 remaining to cut Hannan’s lead to 43-42.

After the Hawk’s made one of two free throws with 1:31 remaining, Chari Julian hit a jumper to tie the game at 44 with 1:22 remaining.

The Rebels would not find the net again. Nora fouled out on a block in the Hawks’ lane. The Rebels lost possession on an errant pass, a walk, a foul and a double dribble call, and the Hawks scored on an uncontested buzzer-beating layup by Miranda Kraemer.

“Our defense wasn’t good,” Nora said. “I feel like we played real hard, we were just under pressure. We had a lot of turnovers.”

Rayville 64, St. Charles 31

Caroline Julian scored eight points and had four rebounds, Lela Hill scored eight points and had five rebounds and Maddie Murphy scored six points for the Comets.

“They were just better than us,” said Comets coach Kim Nunez, whose team made the playoffs for the first time since 2008. “I’m very satisfied with our season. I told the girls, ‘We’re building a program and y’all have laid the foundation.’”

WSJ 70, South Plaquemines 38

The Rams used their high-pressure defense from the opening tip-off, quickly jumping to a 20-0 lead. At the end of the first quarter, West St. John led 20-2. Maya Trench led the scoring with 33 points. Jaquana Hunter scored 16.

Barbe 49, East St. John 30

Lady Wildcats coach Stasha Thomas-James said her team played a great first half, trailing by only 3 before things fell apart.

“It’s like we gave up early in the third quarter,” she said. “All the things we did right in the first half, we couldn’t do in the second half.”

Taylor Lipps scored eight points.