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Central Catholic High School’s Lydia Rivas makes a move on her way to the basket during the Lady Eagles contest with Lafayette Christian earlier this month. Central Catholic, the No. 25 seed in the Class 1A playoffs, will take on No. 8 seed Southern Lab today at 6:30 p.m. in the F.G. Clark Activity Center on the campus of Southern University. (The Daily Review/Geoff Stoute)

CCHS Lady Eagles to travel to face Southern Lab today

By GEOFF STOUTE, gstoute@daily-review.com

No. 25 Central Catholic will look to pull off a first-round upset when it travels to face No. 8 seed Southern Lab tonight in Baton Rouge.
While the game originally was set for 6 p.m. at Seymour Gymnasium, the game has been pushed back to 6:30 p.m. and now will be played at the F.G. Clark Activity Center on Southern University’s campus due to a conflict with the other gym, Central Catholic Principal Vic Bonnaffee said.
First-year head coach Latashia Wise led this year’s squad, which featured plenty of youth but still managed to finish the season with a 14-12 overall mark and a 6-8 record in District 7-1A play, good enough for a fifth-place finish.
“We (were) led by one senior, Lydia Rivas, and we have a bunch of seventh, eighth and ninth graders … with a host of 10th graders that took the court for us this year, so it was quite challenging, but it was a major difference from last year,” said Wise, a former basketball player at Xavier University in New Orleans who also serves as the Central Catholic volleyball coach.
Coming off a state championship in 2014, the Lady Eagles lost Division I signees Meo Knight and Randi Brown to graduation and struggled in 2015, missing the playoffs and finishing the season with a 5-20 mark with a young squad.
“This year we added some different dynamics to our team, and we were able to somehow win 14 games this season,” Wise said. “While it was trying, we went through some struggles, but that’s what happens when you have a very young basketball team. … We competed at every level with the high quality teams in our district.”
While Central Catholic will be facing a No. 8 seed, the squad competed against some of the state’s better teams in district play with Lafayette Christian (No. 3), Vermilion Catholic (No. 5) and Gueydan (No. 9) all securing top 10 seeds in the Class 1A postseason. In their second matchup of the regular season, Lafayette Christian defeated Central Catholic by just two points.
As for Southern Lab, the Baton Rouge squad finished the regular season with a 23-5 mark and was 11-2 in district. They finished tied with White Castle, the No. 14 seed, as district co-champs. Southern Lab won a district playoff between the two schools.
Southern Lab is headlined by sophomore Cailain Williams, a 6-foot, 3-inch LSU commit.
“She’s very good,” Wise said. “She can shoot the ball. She can play inside. She can play outside. They’re also composed of about three other guards who are very good on their team. … They like to run, so we’re going to try to slow’em down a little bit into the half court setting. Try to run our offense, take us some time off the clock, run our sets … so (it will) give us an opportunity to play basketball with a No. 8 seed.”
Defensively, Wise said Southern Lab wants to utilize a full court press and trap the ball
“They got two people on the ball at all times,” Wise said. “They are very aggressive. They’re getting up in your face. … They work hard, so we’re going to have our work cut out for us, but it’s a very good experience for a very young team.”
The Lady Eagles also will be playing in a dome for the first time this season.
“We’ve played on all different types of courts this year, but we’ve never played in per se, a dome arena, so it will take an effect on the young kids,” Wise said. “I think they’re going to be taken back a little bit walking in just knowing they’re on a college campus. Southern Lab being on Southern University’s campus, but I think it’s going to be a good (experience) for them in the future.”

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