Local girls prep teams learn playoff destinations

Five area girls basketball squads learned their postseason designations for the LHSAA playoffs Monday.

With new playoff formats in place, Cedar Creek, Ruston, Simsboro, Lincoln Prep and Quitman officially made the 2023 LHSAA playoff field in their respective divisions.

A total of 28 teams made each of the five Non- select brackets, including Ruston, Simsboro and Quitman.

Meanwhile, 24 teams made each of the five Select brackets, featuring Cedar Creek and Lincoln Prep as part of the field.

Cedar Creek

Among all Lincoln Parish teams, the Lady Cougars were the cream of the crop.

Cedar Creek entered the playoffs 21-5 overall as co-district champions with Ouachita Christian, good enough to earn the No. 7 overall seed and a first-round bye in the Division IV Select bracket.

The Lady Cougars will face the winner of No. 10 Hanson Memorial (18-8) or No. 23 Glenbrook (6-14) in the regional round Monday in the Brickhouse.

Creek defeated Glenbrook in two matchups early in the season, winning 71-16 in the season opener and 61-13 on Dec. 5.

“In the playoffs, everybody’s in the same spot,” Cedar Creek head coach Gene Vandenlangenberg said. “The girls are going to be fine; they’ll be ready. The hardest part of the bye is seeing if we can do a tune-up game to keep the game shape or give them time off as we gear up? It’s a whole new season.”

Creek is led by the trio of seniors Allie Furr, Lillian Soto and Lizzie McAdams, each with plenty of deep postseason experience.

With the help of those leaders, among others, the Lady Cougars have made it to the state semifinals in three consecutive seasons. The program also made it to its first ever state title game last season, falling 60-42 to Southern Lab.

Ruston

The Lady Bearcats will have to start the playoffs as road warriors.

Ruston (14-13) sits as the No. 25 seed in the Division I Non-select playoffs, facing No. 8 Chalmette (19-4) on the road Thursday.

“I know this much as long as I’ve done this: the seed-ing doesn’t often meet the reality,” Graf said. “We have not seen similar style of teams. I think we have been very well tested and different styles of play so I’m going to lean on that and take with us.”

If Ruston wins, the Lady Cats would face the winner of No. 9 Mandeville and No. 24 Northshore. Ruston has made it out of first round in three out of four seasons under Graf (missed playoffs 2019-20). The Lady Cats advanced to the Class 5A quarterfianls a year ago before falling on the road at eventual state champion Ponchatoula.

Simsboro

Despite winning the District 2-B title, the Lady Tigers (15-11) just made the cut for the Division V Non-select playoffs as the No. 27 seed in the 28-team field.

Simsboro will head to the No. 6 seed and small school powerhouse Florien (29-2) Thursday in the first round – an area that’s been a glass ceiling of sorts in recent years.

Matt Herring, the first-year head coach of Simsboro, said while there is some sense of pride in leading the team to the playoffs in his first season, he said his team set their own bar and achieved it.

“We had goals to win district, winning record, double digit wins – all that,” Herring said. “Now our last goal was to win a playoff game so we can still do that. We got a tough draw. Florien is really good from what I’ve heard. But you know in playoffs, you expect to play. We have to focus on us.”

The Lady Tigers have lost in the first round of the playoffs for seven consecutive seasons, including falling to Anacoco in the Class B playoffs last year.

If the Lady Tigers conquer their first-round woes, they would play the winner of the all-Vernon Parish matchup of No. 12 Hornbeck (22-9) and No. 21 Simpson (17-12) in the regional round.

Lincoln Prep

Lincoln Prep squeaked into the field as the No. 24 seed in the Division IV Select playoffs.

The Lady Panthers (3-21) match up with No. 9 seed Sacred Heart (19-11) on the road Thursday in Ville Platte.

Lincoln Prep heads into the playoffs losing six of its last seven games, but that didn’t stop the program from making its eighth straight postseason berth.

Quitman

The Lady Wolverines (21-8) out of Jackson Parish enter the Division V Non-select field as the No. 16 seed, facing No. 17 Summerfield (17-15) in the bi-district round.

Last year, Quitman earned a first-round bye as the No. 8 seed in the Class B playoffs but fell to Anacoco in the regional round.

If Quitman defeats Summerfield, No. 1 seed Fairview (35-6) will be waiting in the regional round.