Lady Tigers lose composure in 66-53 loss to St. James

The DHS Lady Tigers basketball team learned a simple lesson in the 66-53 loss to St. James Friday night: the game is four quarters long. With the team being up as many as nine points in the third quarter with less than five minutes on the clock, the Lady Tigers looked to be in control of the game and would go on to send seniors Patrice West and LaQuincya Governor out with a win in their last home game of their high school careers.

“We were rolling and then all of a sudden I guess we forgot about the fourth quarter,” DHS head basketball coach Amy Blanchard said. “We took five or six shots, quick shots, instead of pulling it out and setting up and all of a sudden it’s a game again.”

At the half the Lady Tigers led 25-22, and right out of the break DHS came back out rolling to extend the lead to 35-36 with 4:36 remaining in the third quarter. West was doing all she could on both ends of the floor to keep DHS in front. She finished the game with a team-high 23 points, despite playing the game with a diagnosed torn hamstring.

As far as the team being able to potentially win a big game against rivals St. James, Blanchard said she told the team it played very capable in some spots of the game.

“But when the going got tough we went back to how we’ve been playing all year,” Blanchard said.

The team recognized its two seniors for Senior Night before the game started and they both played hard in their final games. Governor only was able to score four points, but she showed up on defense and on the boards.

“I think they did well,” Blanchard said. “LaQuincya was always just a good person and good kid to be around.”

“Patrice was more of our go-to scorer. She’s been battling. She has a torn hamstring that she’s been battling since the second half of district. She tried, she did all she could, but sometimes it doesn’t work out so much.