It was Senior Night for the Lafayette High girls basketball team on Friday, and they turned in a memorable performance .
Behind senior guard Chrysta Narcisse and stifling defense, the Lions rolled to a 45-10 victory over rival Acadiana High in a pivotal District 3-5A battle.
"This is the time of the season where you want to be peaking," Lafayette High coach Tarunye Kanonu said. "I thought we came out and did a great job executing the game plan. I'm definitely happy with the way we came out and played."
Narcisse, who has signed to play college basketball at South Alabama, finished with a game-high 17 points in a game that went to running time 15 seconds into the third quarter. In addition to leading the Lions in scoring, Narcisse finished with four steals, four rebounds and one assist.
Also contributing for the Lions were Grace Paul, who scored seven points, grabbed four rebounds and three steals, while fellow senior Dalayla Blackwell contributed six points, three rebounds and one steal.
"We have our full number of kids right now," Kanonu said. "Now, we are trying to get into a routine playing together now that we have everyone back. We know everyone on our team is capable of scoring, and it is just a matter of us putting them in position to be successful."
The Rams, who fell to 22-8 overall and 5-1 in district, saw their five-game winning streak snapped. Considering the success the Rams enjoyed thus far with a win over the same Barbe team that knocked off the Lions (21-6, 5-1) twice this season, many expected a more competitive game.
The Rams committed 23 turnovers and struggled to get shots to fall. They did not make their first field goal until there was 6:05 left in the third quarter to make the score 39-4.
"Our concept is to play Lafayette High basketball," Kanonu said. "I don't think they had faced that type of pressure all season. We were able to trap and put pressure on them, so I think that was the difference in the game."
The Lions' win created a three-way tie for first place in 3-5A, as the Rams, Lions and Barbe each have one loss with two district games remaining. Barbe played at Sam Houston on Friday.