Mandeville’s Lady Skippers put on a valiant effort Thursday night hanging tough with the unbeaten No. 2 seed Southwood Lady Cowboys before falling 60-48 in the semifinal game held at the University Center on the Southeastern Louisiana University campus in Hammond.

MHS (22-4), the No. 11 seed, playing on the big stage gave it their all and actually held a 13-12 first quarter lead and were up 19-17 at the half giving the unbeaten Lady Cowboys (37-0) all they wanted.

Southwood senior Whitney Gaston-Loyd was the difference inside during the second half as she finished with 20 points tying Mandeville sophomore Hannah Tracey for game-high honors. Gaston-Loyd connected on 9-of-13 field goal attempts and was 2-of-2 from the free throw line in 32 minutes of action.

MHS sophomore Katie Lindelow gets inside position for a shot attempt guarded by Southwood’s Whitney Gaston-Loyd. Southwood downed the Mandeville Lady Skippers 60-48 to advance to yesterday’s Class 5-A championship game against Natchitoches Central. (Staff Photo by Mike Pervel)

Southwood shot an incredible percentage from the free throw stripe, canning 25-of-27 charity tosses (92.5 percent) including draining 16 consecutive attempts in the fourth quarter alone to hold off the young squad from Mandeville, which features only one senior.

Southwood shot 50 percent from the field, hitting on 17-of-34, only going 1-of-8 from behind the 3-point arc. Mandeville connected on 18-of-38 attempts (47.4 percent), while clicking on 3-of-4 treys. The Lady Skippers went 9-of-12 from the free throw line.

Southwood held a 42-35 lead with 2:45 to go. Mandeville sophomore Elizabeth Manuel, who finished with five points, swished a 3-pointer from the left corner assisted by freshman Kali Koenig, who added four points with two rebounds. Manuel’s trey cut the Southwood lead to 42-38 with 2:32 to play. From that point forward, the Lady Cowboys would have the game in hand courtesy of their exceptional free throw shooting down the stretch.

Southwood junior Chauntavia Glover, who finished with 12 points connecting on all 12 of her charity tosses, started the streak draining a pair to build a six-point lead at 44-38 and just 2:23 remaining.

MHS was whistled for a crucial offensive foul on its next possession and Gaston-Loyd made them pay, hitting an inside basket to push the lead to eight points with 1:52 to go.

Tracey kept her Lady Skippers in it knocking down a shot to cut the lead to 46-40 and 1:38 on the clock. Southwood’s Kayla Walker, who clicked on 8-of-8 free throws, and finished with 15 points put two in the hopper, upping the margin back to eight at 48-40 before Tracey hit a short jumper to trim the lead back down to six points.

Southwood upped it back to eight with Glover making two more freebies for a 50-42 contest.

Right on cue, Tracey fired off a 3-ball that found nothing but net to make things interesting at 50-45 and 1:01 left with MHS calling time out.

Having to foul again, Southwood’s Glover toed the line with 59 seconds remaining and fired both in upping the lead to 52-45. Mandeville committed two turnovers on their next possessions, while Southwood’s Walker took advantage making four consecutive free throws to increase the Lady Cowboys advantage to 56-45. Just when Southwood began to realize the big lead, MHS’ Tracey was fouled in the act of shooting a 3-pointer. Taking a page from the Southwood free throw book, she polished off all three attempts to make it a 56-48 game, but only 26 seconds were left.

Tracey, who turned in a solid performance, hit on 6-of-10 field goals, while going 6-for-9 at the free throw line. She had three assists and a steal.

Southwood put the exclamation point on their 12-point victory with Walker and Glover both sinking their final two free throws to help Southwood advance to the championship match, which at press time was scheduled for yesterday against No. 1 seed Natchitoches Central.

Lady Skippers’ sophomore Katie Lindelow, a standout performer all season long, who recorded a number of double-doubles, finished with 13 points and led her club with seven rebounds including two on the offensive end. She also produced a team-high three steals. Lindelow connected on 5-of-6 shots from the field and was a perfect 3-of-3 from the line.

Kelsey Sparks, the Lady Skippers’ lone senior, who battled through serious illness and injury during the year, fouled out of the game late, scoring six points on 3-of-6 shooting. She collected three offensive rebounds to go with two blocks. Mandeville sophomore Kate Wynne and freshman Ellie Niedermair played some limited, but productive minutes off the bench for the Lady Skippers giving starters a breather.

During the post game interview Mandeville long-time coach T.A. Ricks opened up by talking about Southwood having a great post game.

“That is what they ended up beating us with, the people inside. Let me tell you, these little girls played their hearts out. They did a great job,” Ricks said.

“Things were going really well in the first half. We were defending the post, but we didn’t do that well the second half. Forty-two (Gasten-Loyd) ended up shooting the ball probably hit six or seven shots in a row and she did a great job with that turn around jumper. We just couldn’t stop her,” Ricks added.

Coach Ricks was accompanied in the post-game interview by three of his players, Lindelow, Sparks and Tracey.

Sparks was asked what she felt about the team’s performance.

“I’m totally proud of the girls and I wouldn’t change the season at all. I’ve had a really rough year (illness and injury), and they helped make it all worth it. I’m proud of this team for getting so far,” Sparks said.

Ricks talked about his team being special and having to have leadership with such a young team and he said he had that with Kelsey Sparks.

“She did a great job for us all year. The young ladies played hard all the way in the beginning to the end. That’s the main thing we talked about at the beginning of the season. They did a wonderful job all year,” Ricks added.

Tracey, the Lady Skippers’ spark plug, credited Southwood with having a strong ball club.

“We want to come back next year just as strong. I wish we could have started shooting a little earlier. We started a little too late,” Tracey said.

Tracey said her and her teammates wanted it this year.

“Until now, we weren’t thinking about next year or the year before. We were thinking about this game. We knew we could do it this year. Things just didn’t go our way. We were focused on this time, not the next,” Tracey added.

Lindelow said Southwood definitely played its type of game in the second half.

“We were kind of controlling the game a little more in the first half. No. 42 really hurt us in the end. They adjusted at half time and we didn’t,” Lindelow said. “They pulled ahead in the second half, and then we started trading baskets. That doesn’t work once they are ahead.”

Ricks talked about Southwood becoming more physical in the second half controlling his team with their bodies and their arms.

“We just didn’t fight back hard enough. We had a great year, a spectacular year. It was wonderful,” Ricks concluded.