Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

LAPLACE — All four St. John the Baptist Parish girl’s basketball teams are advancing to the playoffs. The Louisiana High School Athletic Association announced the 2020 playoff brackets this week at lshaa.org.
St. Charles Catholic’s 15-7 regular season record earned a No. 5 seed in the playoffs. The Lady Comets will host No. 12 Louise McGehee at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the bi-district round of the playoffs. If successful, they will advance to the Monday, Feb. 24 regional round and face the winner of Wednesday’s meeting between No. 4 Northlake Christian and No. 13 Ascension Episcopal.

It was a rocky season start for St. Charles Catholic, but it didn’t take long for the Lady Comets to hit their stride and claim a midseason eight-game winning streak. After taking a hard fought loss to South Plaquemines, the girls rebounded with four consecutive district wins to round out the regular season.

Riverside Academy went 10-15 for the regular season and earned a No. 12 ranking in the playoffs, advancing to the regional round. The Lady Rebels will travel to face No. 5 Highland Baptist at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in New Iberia. While outmatched in ranking, the Lady Rebels could still secure a win to propel to the Feb. 27 quarterfinal round, where they would face the winner of No. 4 Cedar Creek and No. 13 Hanson Memorial.

The Lady Rebels began the season with a string of five wins in December before falling victim to a series of larger schools. The team found two District wins against Crescent City and another against Central Private.

West St. John went 11-17 in the regular season and ranked No. 17 in the playoffs. The Lady Rams will travel more than five hours to face Plain Dealing High School at 6 p.m. in the Thursday bi-district match. A win would secure West St. John a spot in the Monday, Feb. 24 regional round, where the girls would find a gargantuan challenge against No. 1 North Central.

While North Central earned a first round bye, the top-ranked team is not infallible. This season, the Hurricanes sported a 19-7 record.

The Lady Rams went 4-4 in district play, taking two wins each against Riverside Academy and Crescent City.

East St. John has had a powerful season with 23 wins and only six losses, but fierce competition in the 5A division dealt the Lady Cats a No. 23 ranking in the playoffs.

They will travel Thursday to face the No. 10 seed Denham Springs at 7 p.m. Any outcome is possible; the Denham Springs Yellow Jackets went 18-9 for the season and 4-1 in district competition.

A win against Denham Springs would bring East St. John to the Monday, Feb. 24 regional round to play the winner of Thursday’s meeting between No. 7 Hahnville and No. 26 West Ouachita.

The Lady Cats ended the regular season with two solid district wins over Destrehan and Central Lafourche. East St. John also defeated 5A opponents Terrebone, Thibodaux and H.L. Bourgeois in the latter half of the season.