Lincoln Prep advances to state championship

LAKE CHARLES — Redemption secured.

The No. 2 Lincoln Prep Panthers (24-4) avenged their semifinal demons and defeated Crescent City 62-56 in overtime in the Division IV Select semifinals Thursday at Burton Coliseum in Lake Charles.

With the win, the Panthers advance to the Division IV Select state championship Saturday against No. 1 Northwood-Lena.

After falling in last season’s Division IV semifinals to North Central, Prep came back to Lake Charles with a mission in mind and fulfilled it through a tight overtime battle, now one win away from the school’s first state title since 1992 when it was Grambling Lab.

Prep seemed on its way to a smooth finish over Crescent City, leading 39-34 heading into the fourth and continued to lead 44-40 with three minutes left in the game.

But the Pioneers wouldn’t go away, eventually cutting the lead to 44-43 with 2:05 left. And then, with two seconds left in regulation, Crescent nailed a three to tie things up at 48-48 to head to a four-minute overtime.

But that’s when Stephen Burks came up with two of the biggest shots of his life.

The junior buried back-to-back threes to give Prep a 56-51 lead with 1:12 left, sending the Lincoln Prep faithful into its loudest roar of the afternoon. Crescent continued to fight back, trailing 59-54 with 43.5 seconds remaining.

With 13 seconds left, Crescent attempted one last rally but it was too late and the Panthers pulled out the win.

Prep will now play in its first state title game since 2020.

And it wasn’t without Crescent shooting for the moon in the first half, connecting on six of its 14 threes in the first, including 3-of-6 in the second quarter to lead 26-21 at halftime – outscoring the Panthers 15-8 in the second quarter.

Lincoln Prep’s two leading scorers — Brandon Heard and Bralyn Mayfield — on the other hand had trouble with the physicality of Crescent City in the opening 16 minutes with the duo shooting a combined 3-of-12 from the field in the first half.

The Panthers responded quickly after the intermission, bursting back ahead on a 13-1 run to lead 34-27 with 4:30 left in the quarter with suffocating defense feeding easy offense.

Crescent City had nine turnovers at halftime and matched that total in the third quarter alone as Prep’s full-court pressure turned up the heat.

Kobe Mack finished with a team-high 18 points while Mayfield ended with 14.

Prep will play Northwood-Lena for the Division IV select state title Saturday at noon.