EUNICE - North Central remained undefeated with a 42-40 come-from-behind victory over Eunice in game five of the St. Landry Parish Basketball Tournament on Thursday.
Darnesha Joseph led the Lady Canes with 13 points, while Tasha Tanner contributed nine. Jada Thomas paced the Lady Cats with 15 points, Moriah Allison added 12 and Adrienne Cesar tallied nine for the Eunice effort.
"We played hard and I thank God we pulled it out," said North Central coach Vanessa Taylor. "Coach (Sam) Johnson did a good job stopping our transition game."
Johnson thought his team did what it needed to do to stay in the game, but credited North Central (11-0) for coming from behind to take the victory.
"We pressed and tried to cut them off from running the floor," Johnson said, "but they're undefeated and we're a poor shooting team."
Eunice (3-6) broke from the gate with a 12-0 run and put the Lady Canes on the defensive. North Central trailed until midway through the third and managed to climb back into the contest using stifling pressure defense.
The teams traded leads down the stretch and went into the final two and a half minutes tied until Thomas hit a 3-pointer with 1:59 to play to give the Lady Cats a 39-36 lead.
Appolonia Chambers answered with a trey to cut the Eunice lead to 40-39 with 48 seconds left, then Donisha Duruisseau put back a deuce to give the Lady Canes a 41-40 lead 10 seconds later.
The Lady Canes hit one of four free throws in the final 30 seconds to preserve their undefeated record.