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BATON ROUGE, La. — Delta Charter School’s varsity girls’ basketball team may not have been nervous about playing on a college basketball campus last Thursday night, but the Lady Storm was intimidated by the opponent it was facing.

That team was the Southern University Laboratory School, better known as Southern Lab, Lady Kittens, last year’s LHSAA Division IV state champions. Led by sophomore point guard Shaila Foreman and freshman guard Asia Patin, No. 1 seed Southern Lab rolled to 68-19 win over No. 8 seed Delta Charter in the quarterfinals of the 2023 LHSAA Girls’ Division IV (Select) Playoffs.

Lady Storm head coach Ronald Ellis said last Friday morning that in his nine years coaching at Delta Charter, Southern Lab is probably the best girls’ team he has seen.

“They’re a real No. 1 contender. They’re very physical. They’re aggressive,” Ellis said. “They’re strong, but they’re not tall. They average about 5-9, 5-10. That’s a good team.”

With the game being played at the F.G. Clark Activity Center on the Southern University campus, Southern Lab had quite the home-court advantage. And the Lady Kittens used that as well as their physicality to the Lady Storm not long after tip-off.

By the time the first quarter was over, the Lady Kittens led the Lady Storm 30-5. The second quarter was more competitive, but Southern Lab still outscored Delta Charter 11-7 for a 41-12 halftime lead.

Foreman led Southern Lab with 18 points and Patin wasn’t too far behind with 16 points. Lady Kittens junior small forward Kinsley James poured in 12 points.

“I see why they won last year and they’re probably going to win it again this year,” Ellis said. “I think our girls got intimidated once the whistle blew and they started pressing us. They haven’t played a team like that. That’s a tough team.

The second half was pretty much more of the same. Southern Lab put up 16 points in the third quarter and 11 points in the fourth quarter while holding Delta Charter to four and three points, respectively.

Only three players for Delta Charter found their way into the scoring column. Roniya Ellis led the way with 10 points to go with seven rebounds while Chyann Lee had seven points and Makayla Matthews finished with two points.

The Lady Storm, which ran the table and finished 10-0 in the new District 4-1A, finished with an overall record of 20-10.