The Parkway Lady Panthers are aiming for a three-peat Saturday night.
Parkway (29-4), the No. 1 seed, faces No. 3 Zachary (25-5) in the non-select Division I state title game at Soueastern Louisiana’s University Center in Hammond. The game is the final one in the state tournament also known as Girls’ Marsh Madness.
Tip off is 8 o’clock.
The Lady Panthers are seeking their third straight state championship. This is the fourth year in a row that they’ve reached the title game.
Parkway advanced to the championship game with a 51-32 victory over No. 4 Haughton in Thursday night’s semifinals. Zachary upset No. 2 seed Walker 50-48.
Like Parkway, the Lady Broncos received a first-round bye in the playoffs. They defeated No. 14 Hahnville 66-45 in the second round and No. 6 Natchitoches Central 59-45 in the quarterfinals.
Guard Ava Raymond led Zachary against Walker with 17 points. Center Cimiya Rideaux had 12 points and 13 rebounds.
The Lady Broncos finished second to Woodlawn-Baton Rouge in District 4-5A. Woodlawn faces District 1-5A member Huntington for the select Division I championship Saturday at 4 p.m.
Parkway will go into tonight’s game as the favorite. But this is the first time in the Lady Panthers’ four-year run they entered the playoffs as the No. 1 seed.
“I don’t know if it bothered the young ladies or not, but we’ve never been the No. 1 seed in all these years,” Parkway Head Coach Gloria Williams said after Thursday’s game. “And I felt like that, to me, put a little more pressure on us to make sure that we perform, but at the end of the day my mantra is that seeding is just seeding. That’s all it is. It’s just to get us in position.”
Williams said whether you’re the No. 1, 2 or three seed, it doesn’t really matter.
This will be the final game for standout Dakota Howard, the team’s leading scorer on the season, and post player Savannah Wilson.
Howard led the Lady Panthers against Haughton with 19 points. Wilson led the team in rebounding with 10.
The other seniors are Natalia Brown, Mahogany Johnson, Jakhiya Johnson and Caitlynn Johnson.