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Lady Vikings clinch berth in state playoffs |
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Written by Jerry Byrd
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Tuesday, 06 February 2007 |
Airline’s Lady Vikings clinched a berth in the state playoffs Friday night with a 63-57 District 1-5A basketball victory over Natchitoches-Central at Airline.
Rashima Jenkins scored 23 points and grabbed eight rebounds for the Lady Vikings, who carry a 23-9 season record into tonight’s game with District 1-5A co-leader West Monroe.
Coach David Duhon’s team is 7-3 in distict play and can finish no worse than a third-place tie with Ruston.
Last year, the Lady Vikings didn’t know they would be in the playoffs until two days before the playoffs started, when the Louisiana High School Athletic Association ruled that two “wild card” teams would replace two spots vacated by a South Louisiana district that had only two schools participating in basketball following Hurricane Katrina. Given that opportunity, the Lady Vikings marched to the state finals before dropping an overtime decision to 1-5A rival Southwood.
West Monroe and Southwood were 1-2 in the Louisiana Sports Writers’ Assn. Class 5A poll last week before Southwood moved into a first-place tie with West Monroe by handing the Lady Rebels their first district loss, 55-51, Friday night.
The only other 1-5A team receiving any votes in last week’s poll was Natchitoches-Central, which dropped to 21-12 for the season and 4-7 in district play with the loss to Airline.
In the boys’ game Friday night, Airline’s chances for a state playoff berth dropped from 50-50 to something considerably lower than that with a 62-54 loss to Natchitoches-Central.
The Vikings, who trailed 33-24 at halftime, had only one double digit scorer as Jose Limon scored 10 points. Marcus Dawson led the team in rebounds with eight.
Airline dropped to 14-17 for the season, and will have to win two of its last three games (starting with No. 5-ranked West Monroe tonight) to have any shot at the playoffs.
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