The Saint Jo Lady Panthers secured their first district title in 10 years with a win against Forestburg at home on Friday night.
The Lady Panthers won 53-30 against the Lady Horns in a game where whoever won would have wrapped up the district title.
Both teams came into the game with only one loss in district.
Saint Jo had beaten Forestburg the first game between the teams nearly a month ago 45-41. The Lady Panthers only loss in district came in their second game against Slidell.
It was packed inside Saint Jo’s Dome Gym as the Forestburg faithful traveled the 13 miles down the road to support the Lady Horns in the team’s first chance at a district title since possibly the 80s.
The first quarter started and neither team could get settled in offensively. Only two baskets were scored combined and the Lady Panthers led only 4-2 thanks to some made free throws.
The most important thing that happened occurred in the final minute of the quarter. Forestburg’s do everything ball handler Brenna Briles picked up her third foul. She sat not only the rest of that quarter but the full second quarter.
During that time Saint Jo’s offense picked up thanks in large part to its defense. With one of the Lady Horns ball handlers out, the Lady Panthers, who didn’t start the game with a full-court press, switched into it and really started to change the game.
Besides scoring on a three-point play at the beginning of the second quarter, Forestburg failed to score for the rest of it.
Saint Jo created turnovers and sped the game up to its preferred pace and shots finally started to fall for the Lady Panthers.
Payzlie Cervantes made three 3-pointers and scored 11 of the team’s 19 points in the quarter to break away from the Lady Horns.
Saint Jo led 23-5 heading into halftime and had all of the momentum.
Forestburg could only play better offensively going forward and started the third quarter making two 3-pointers early on to surpass its first half total. Unfortunately for the Lady Horns, Briles picked up foul four after three minutes and sat the rest of the quarter.
Despite her missing, Forestburg did a better job of taking care of the ball and scored two more baskets.
The Lady Horns also started employing a full-court press as well after not really having a chance to set it up with the lack of scoring.
It did not seem to slow down the Lady Panthers much. Four different players scored at least one basket as Saint Jo built its lead by outscoring Forestburg 14-11. The Lady Panthers led 37-16 heading into the fourth quarter.
It was a similar story even if both teams drew way more free throws in the final period than either had all game. Even when Saint Jo at times tried to slow the game down, the Lady Panthers still ended with the highest scoring quarter of the game for them.
Saint Jo outscored the Lady Horns 16-14 in the final period to win the game 53-30.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.