EAST GIRLS DOWN WEST IN LOUISIANA BASKETBALL ALL-STAR GAME
BATON ROUGE — The West girls held off a second-half East comeback to win, 57-55, Thursday night in the 33rd annual Louisiana High School Coaches Association/Coca-Cola All-Star Game at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
The East’s Vanity Ledet from Acadiana was named the Most Outstanding Player after scoring nine points with two assists and two steals.
The West built a 39-29 halftime advantage before the East took a 45-44 lead with 11:18 to go. Neither team had more than a four point lead the rest of the way. The East led 55-54 with 1:21 to play, but the West got the final four points of the game to get the win.
Candice McGee of Destrehan led the East with 10 points, while Emily Carter of Airline led the victorious West with 11 points.
EAST WINS FIRST GAME OF WEEK, WINNING BOYS GAME, 99-92
BATON ROUGE — The East team won its first game of Louisiana High School Coaches Association/Coca-Cola All-Star Week Thursday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, 99-92, in boys’ basketball.
The week concludes Friday night at 6:30 p.m. in Tiger Stadium for the 69th and final meeting in the East-West series in football and the final all-star week of games hosted by LSU.
Just like in the girls’ basketball game earlier in the evening, the MVP came from the losing squad as Darrell Hicks of Jennings had a game-high 18 points on 5-of-9 field goal shooting and 7-of-8 free throw shooting. Tony Williams of Donaldsonville added 10.
Aryan Gary of Carencro led the East with 16 points and eight rebounds, while Troy Cage of Glen Oaks and Sean Bennett of St. Paul’s had 10 points each.
The West opened the game up quickly, getting an 18-point, 35-17, first half lead, only to have the East come back to cut it to two, 49-47, at the half.
But the East turned it on early, taking the lead at 54-53 with 17:40 to play on a three-pointer by Bennett. The West tied the game for the last time with about eight minutes to play before the East turned it on, scoring
52 second half points in a game that featured 57 fouls, 113 rebounds and 92 free throws.
The East leads the series, 29-26.