Marsh Madness: Storm advance past Sacred Heart, face Southern Lab Thursday

Published 1:59 pm Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

FERRIDAY — Delta Charter School head basketball coach Ronald Ellis described senior guard Chyann Lee’s performance in Monday night’s LHSAA Division IV (Select) Playoff game against Sacred Heart School as “an all-around game.”

And the Lady Storm needed not only her game-high 23 points, but also her leadership and tenacity on defense as they overcame a sluggish start to defeat the Lady Trojans 48-39 in a regional round game.

“We started off slow scoring. We played good defense. But we were missing lay-ups and missing opportunities. Then Chyann got things going for us,” Ellis said. “She picked up her game at the end of the first and the beginning of the second when we were struggling to score.”

Email newsletter signup

Delta Charter, the No. 8 seed which earned it a bi-district round bye, clung on to a 9-6 lead at the end of the first quarter. In addition to Lee, Roniya Ellis hit a couple of key 3-pointers for the Lady Storm in a second quarter in which it outscored No. 9 seed Sacred Heart 16-8 for a 25-14 halftime lead.

“It was a physical game. The refs didn’t call anything. Not many fouls called. They let both teams play,” coach Ellis said. “Every time we had a break (in the second quarter), Chyann was getting to the rack.”

“Chyann, her leadership all night was a spark plug for us last night,” Ellis added.

However, the Lady Trojans from Ville Platte, La., would not go away without a fight. They outscored the Lady Storm 14-7 in the third quarter to make it a four-point game at 32-28. Yet Delta Charter responded by outscoring Sacred Heart 16-11 in the fourth quarter.

“They capitalized on some of our mistakes. We had a few bad passes. They moved the ball real well. You have to be patient on defense, which we did,” Ellis said.

Roniya Ellis was the only other player for Delta Charter to score in double figures as she finished with 19 points. The Lady Trojans were led in scoring by K. Shiver with 13 points and A. Johnson with seven points.

The Lady Storm improved to 20-9 overall and will travel to Baton Rouge, La. to take on the No. 1 seed Southern University Laboratory School, better known as Southern Lab, Lady Kittens in a quarterfinal-round game at 6 p.m. Thursday. Coach Ellis said as of late Tuesday morning he doesn’t know if the game will be played at Southern Lab’s gym or at the F.G. Clark Activity Center on the Southern University campus.