Panthers come up short in state championship

LAKE CHARLES – Lincoln Prep’s season ends in heartbreak.
The No. 2 seeded Panthers fell in the Division IV Select state championship to No. 1 Northwood-Lena 73-56 Saturday at Burton Coliseum.
Lincoln Prep (24-5) made it back to the state tournament for consecutive seasons and played in the school’s first state championship game since 2020, when Prep finished runner up that season in the Class 1A field.
The Northwood-Lena Gators took care of business on the offensive glass and hit timely three pointers to pull away with the win – matching the Lady Gators’ state title two weeks prior.
Lincoln Prep head coach Antonio Hudson tipped his cap to Northwood and the challenge they gave Prep all afternoon.
“Gotta tip our hat to Northwood-Lena, they came ready to play,” Hudson said postgame. “The stat that everybody sees that’s alarming is 21 offensive rebounds. Coming into the game, I said if we don’t rebound we’re going to struggle and that’s what it was.”
Northwood won the rebounding battle 39-30 and 21-14 on the offensive glass, leaving Prep frustrated throughout the contest with numerous put-back layups and wide-open threes as the defense was left collapsed.
The first quarter began to tell the story of how the game would play out and was defined by similar storylines as the semifinal win over Crescent City: turnovers and a lack of offensive rebounding.
Early on, Northwood held a 10-2 margin on the offensive glass to keep punching when Prep would get an initial stop on defense in the first quarter.
Meanwhile, Prep had six turnovers and nine points through the first six minutes, but senior forward Bralyn Mayfield was on a scoring tear in the opening frame that continued throughout the game.
Mayfield scored 10 of the Panthers’ 15 first-quarter points on 5-of-5 shooting and was a catalyst as Prep went on a 6-0 run in the final minute to go up 15-14 after the first despite the noted issues.
But the second quarter was more of the same. The Gators continued to win off ball screens to get good looks for two more three-point shots to go with pesky defense that turned the Panthers over five more times for 11 total in the first half.
Prep had things tied up at 17-17 for a moment but then Northwood’s trap defense and offensive rebounding success started wearing on the Panthers before the break, as the Gators walked into the break ahead 27-23.
Mayfield scored 18 points by halftime, while Kobe Mack had 4 points and Brandon Heard had 3 of his own.
By halftime, Prep cut into the offensive rebounding total 12-7 but the third quarter proved to be the nail in the coffin for a potential comeback effort.
The Gators jumped out to their biggest lead of the day at the time, with Prep trailing 37-27 with 3:39 left in the third quarter.
Prep continued to give up too many extra looks on offensive rebounds and allowed the Gators’ shooters to connect on open shots.
The Panthers tried to cut into the deficit as the quarter was winding down, at one point trailing 37-29 with 2:14 left. Another big three from Northwood right in front of its bench as the third quarter buzzer sounded made it 44-31, leaving the Panthers and their fans with a collective sigh.
Hudson said the third quarter came down to a lack of execution for Prep and featured fewer drives to the basket than he demanded from his team.
The game was out of reach for most of the final eight minutes as Northwood played keep-away while creating points off turnovers in transition with full-court passes and alley-oops.
As disappointing as the final result was for Hudson, he was quick to note afterwards that former Grambling Lab head coach Michael Lyons would be proud of the Panthers’ 2023 effort.
“I know he’s proud, he’s proud,” Hudson of Lyons, who passed away last month. “You were looking for a fairytale ending but I know he’s proud of me and proud of the team, I know he’s proud of the community. He’d just tell me to we gotta get back it again next year.”
Mayfield finished with a season-high 32 points, including 18 in the second half. Mack was the next leading scorer for the Panthers with 8 points.
With a realization his time at Prep was over, Mayfield told reporters postgame he knew he had to leave everything he had on the floor to give the Panthers a shot.
“We wanted to win, gave it all we had, me and my team,” Mayfield said. “We gotta execute on the little things.”
Hudson could see it in his players’ eyes, even with the sting of defeat still fresh. The Panthers gave all they could and no one result will change how Hudson feels about his group.
“Beyond basketball, he knows I love him like a son,” Hudson said of Mayfield. “And that will never change. I don’t care where he goes in life, no matter what avenue he takes in life. And that’s all of them. They’re all my kids and there’s nothing they can do about it.”