BATON ROUGE — The annual Louisiana High School Coaches Association/Coca-Cola All-Star Week of games begins Wednesday night with the 22nd meeting of East and West in Volleyball at 7 p.m. at the Maravich Center on the LSU campus.
The boys and girls basketball games will also be played in the Maravich Center on Thursday night at 6 p.m. with the 66th all-star football game slated to kick off at 6:30 p.m. on Friday night in Tiger Stadium.
The East leads the Volleyball series, 17-4, but the game will be played for the first time under the college scoring rules adopted by the NCAA a couple of seasons ago with rally scoring for all games with every serve leading to a point by one team or the other. In previous years and under high school Federation rules, only the team serving could score a point. Each game will be played to 30 and the winning team must win by two points in the best of five competition.
This will be the 30th game for women’s basketball with the West winning 17 of the 29 previous meetings, but the East has begun to close the gap by winning six of the last eight, including the last three.
Last year’s 101-83 win by the East in the boys basketball game, gives the East a 26-25 advantage and the East also leads the football game, 38-25 with two ties. Last year, the East won 7-6 when the West missed an extra point after a late fourth quarter touchdown.
EAST DEFEATS WEST IN VOLLEYBALL ALL-STAR GAME
BATON ROUGE — Using the new for high school rally scoring system produced some entertaining volleyball and a surprise start for the West but in the end the East rallied to win, 3-1, for the 18th time in the 22-year history of the Louisiana High School Coaches Association/Coca-Cola All-Star Volleyball Match Wednesday night at LSU’s Maravich Center.
The East won the contest 23-25, 28-26, 25-16, 25-20, before 773 in attendance.
The basketball all-stars take the court on Thursday night at the Maravich Center with the girls beginning at 6 p.m. and the boys to follow at approximately 8 p.m.
Ashley Ruckert of Sacred Heart New Orleans was the unanimous choice as the Most Outstanding Player of the contest, finishing with 11 kills in 31 attempts.
The two teams struggled offensive in the first two games but with the rally system where every serve produces a point the games stayed very close with the West taking a 25-23 decision. The play remained the same in game two before the East scored the final four points with Ruckert getting points 27 and 28 to win, 28-26, to even the match at one game apiece.
The East took control of the match when all players on the roster could be used after splitting the squads six and six in the first two games, winning 25-16, and then clinched the match in game four, breaking out of a 9-9 tie to go from 15-9 on six service points by Lindsey Goodier, finishing the run with a service ace, forcing a West time out as the East won the game and the match, 25-20.
EAST WINS ALL-STAR BOYS HOOPS THRILLER, 93-91
BATON ROUGE — The East boys’ basketball team rallied from a seven-point halftime deficit to score a 93-91 decision over the West in the 52nd annual Louisiana High School Coaches Association/Coca-Cola All-Star Game at the Maravich Center Thursday night.
Chaz Dykes of Carver was the game’s Most Outstanding Player for the East scoring 22 points with 10 rebounds, hitting seven of 11 shots from the field including two treys. Blake Whittle added 20 points for the East, Darnel Lazare 15 points and 10 boards and Roshon Jacobs 13 points as the East won for the third straight year to take a 27-25 lead in the series.
The West was led by the 19 points of Paul Millsap of Grambling with Terrance Mouton the only other West player in double figures with 11. Arnold Gore of the West was the game rebound leader with 11 boards.
After leading 52-45 at the half, the West scored the first five points of the second half to up the margin to 12, 57-45 before the East end on a 15-4 run to cut the West lead to 61-60 with 16:09 to play. But the West held off the East until Dykes hit a layup and a three-pointer in succession to give the East a 75-74 advantage with 7:32 to play.
The West tied the game at 75-75 before Dykes scored again to give the West the lead at 77-75. The West would tie the game at 90-90 with 1:14 to play, but the East made three free throws and the West couldn’t cash in despite the winners missing their final four charity attempts in the last 13 seconds.
The All-Star week concludes Friday night at Tiger Stadium at 6:30 p.m. in the annual state all-star football clash.
EAST GIRLS USE BIG FIRST HALF TO WIN ALL-STAR BASKETBALL, 68-40
BATON ROUGE — The East girls hit 41 percent of their first half shots and game MVP Charnell Dimicili of Albany hit all five first half field goal attempts as the East beat the West, 68-40, Thursday night in the first game of the Louisiana High School Coaches Association/Coca-Cola All-Star basketball doubleheader at the Maravich Assembly Center.
Dimicili finished with 10 points and six rebounds in 16 minutes of play, with Cara Porter (daughter of Louisiana Sports Hall of Famer Harold Porter) the leading scorer for the East with 11 points and eight boards in 14 minutes. Maria Rodriguez had a game best five assists for the East to go with nine assists. Meghann LeJeune had eight points and eight boards to lead the West.
The East built a 35-16 halftime advantage, holding the West to just 20.6 percent from the floor (7-of-34), compared to 14-of-34 for the East. The West still leads the overall series, 17-13, but the East has won the girls contest each of the last four years.
The game was tied three time in the beginning, the last at 6-6 with 14:22 to go in the half, before the East scored eight straight points, leading by as much as 20, 33-13, late in the first 20 minutes.
The all-star week concludes with the 66th annual football all-star game at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Tiger Stadium.
BATON ROUGE — In a wide-open pass-oriented contest, two sustained first quarter drives proved to be all the scoring the teams could muster as the West downed the East, 7-6, in the 66th annual Louisiana High School Coaches Association/Coca-Cola All-Star Football game at Tiger Stadium
East quarterback Billy Farris of Woodlawn Baton Rouge was the offensive MVP in the game, completing 12-of-25 passes for 189 yards. The defensive MVP was Bradley Thompson of Plaquemine who had a game-high 10 tackles and one fumble recovery.
The East took the lead on its first possession of the game as Neely Hubbard’s one-yard run capped a 15 plays, 71-yard drive. The East tried a swinging game two-point conversion that was intercepted, leaving the East up 6-0.
The East intercepted the West’s first pass and drove back down the field, before trying to settle for a 24-yard field goal from Barrett Pepper. The kick was blocked and after a long run and a lateral the West was in the end zone with an apparent score, but the touchdown was nullified by a forward lateral call on the play.
But the West kept the ball and drove 76 yards in 10 plays with Anthony Moss scoring from five yards out to tie the game with 2:05 remaining in the long first quarter. Breck Ackley made what turned out to be the game winning kick to give the West a 7-6 advantage.
Both teams had other chances to score but couldn’t convert and the game ended when Pepper of the East missed a 56-yard field goal attempt which had the distance but was low and to the right of the goal post leaving the game’s final score 7-6 for the second straight year, only with the opposite team winning.
The West win kept the East from completely sweeping the All-Star week after the East won volleyball on Wednesday and then taking the boys and girls basketball games on Saturday.