By ROBERT L. LEE

HAHNVILLE – The Lady Tigers’ Toyelle Rickson seized the opening tipoff for an immediate basket and Hahnville’s only lead of the evening. Once Dominican gained possession, they dominated both sides of the court, keeping the Lady Tigers scrambling for any attempt to regain a lead. When the four quarters were finally finished, Hahnville was handed a frustrating 60-36 loss to end their post season Monday night.

As soon as the ball hit the hardwood floor, both teams sprung toward each other as if they had already been playing for two quarters. However, the Lady Tigers found trouble adapting to Dominican’s pace. Dominican forced Hahnville to either rush their shots and fight for the rebound, or have the ball striped from their hands during transition.

The Lady Tigers completed a limited number of successful runs which cut down Dominican’s lead to five points during the first half, but the girls in black and white were quick to answer and stretch their lead.

When the first quarter came to a close, Hahnville trailed 16-8, largely in part to Dominican’s numerous steals.

“They ran better than we expected and it was hard to catch up,” admitted Hahnville coach Earl Oestreicher.

With the stench of their first-quarter deficit looming, the Lady Tigers tuned their play through the next eight minutes, allowing a higher percentage of their plays to be successfully executed. With Hahnville picking up Dominican’s first quarter routine, the girls in black and white switched their main offensive scheme and began relying on consistent goals from under the basket. Dominican would work the Lady Tigers to the outside, then drop in a bounce pass to one of their 6-foot-tall players open in the paint. With steals on one end of the court and lay ups on the other side, Dominican maintained their nine-point lead, then finished the first half up 29-19.

“They killed us on the boards,” said Oestreicher. “The main thing was they were too tall for us and our rebounders. They had a two girls over 6 foot tall.”

Knowing Dominican had walked through their man-to-man style defense, Hahnville returned to the floor with a 1-2-2-zone defense, sending two players to the ball at a time, instead of one. Dominican felt the added pressure and the players spent less time with the ball, but they continued their prior plan, passing the ball inside for the dependable two points.

Offensively for the Lady Tigers, their shooting accuracy increased through the third quarter and they were able to put up 12 points, almost matching Dominican’s 14 points. Holding a healthy 12-point lead, the girls in black and white made it clear they weren’t ready to stop. Dominican rallied for 17 points in the final eight minutes, suffocating the Lady Tigers who managed to drop in only five points.

“We had to go back to man-to-man to try and catch up,” said Oestreicher. “We missed a lot of lay ups and free throws, which could’ve cut the lead down, but we just didn’t shot the ball very well in the fourth quarter.”

Dominican finished the night with 18 forced turnovers and a record of 22-9. They will move on through the playoffs to face the winner of the East St. John and Covington matchup in the quarterfinals. Rickson ended with a total 13 points for the Lady Tigers, while teammates Whitney Scott, Dominique White and Marquita Hill each had seven points. Guard Jazzlyn Young rounded out the scoring with two points.

The Lady Tigers end their season at 21-12.