The Northside Lady Vikings of Lafeyette trekked from Acadiana to take on 15th seeded Franklinton Monday night at the Lady Demons’ gym and eliminated the home team from the 2013 prep basketball playoffs with a 49-40 victory in the bi-regional round.

“The problem tonight was that my girls wanted to play too much team basketball when they needed to put the ball up. It seemed no one wanted to shoot the ball, and we needed that,” said Franklinton coach Regina Meyerchick.

“We have some outstanding shooters on this team, but tonight we didn’t take enough shots, and we got outrebounded when we missed,” added Meyerchick.

The loss ends the season for the Lady Demons, runner-ups from District 7-4A. The team finished the season at 22-5 overall.

The Lady Vikings, the 18th seed from District 5-4A, advance to the regional round to host second-seeded St. Michael’s of Baton Rouge on Thursday. Northside improved to 20-12 overall.

“I was very pleased with our effort this evening. We didn’t allow them defensively to score in transition, and offensively we attacked the goal by getting rebounds and starting our break,” said Tarunye Kanonu, Northside’s coach.

The game started with each squad exchanging baskets good for a nine-all tie to end the opening period.

In the second quarter Northside went on a 12-0 run to take a 29-18 lead at halftime. In the frame, senior forward Toni Woods had a dozen of her team’s 20 points. Woods hit on all six of her free throw attempts and hit three field goals in the period.

Franklinton closed the deficit to eight points, 41-33, by the end of the third period with all of its points coming from behind the arc as the Lady Demons hit five 3-pointers, two each by juniors Chelsea Armand and Hailey Sellers and one from Ashley Varnado.

Senior Cheyenne Fornea tried to rally her group in the final period, scoring four of her team’s seven points, but the Lady Demons ran out of time having to foul to stop the Lady Vikings, who went to the charity stripe four times and sank 2-of-6 to hold on for the win.

Sellers was the lone Lady Demon in double figures with 17 points. She also grabbed 12 boards to lead Franklinton on the glass. Fornea finished with six points as did Armand. Junior forward Amber Carter seized five boards and added a basket to the Lady Demons’ totals.

“The positive thing is that we only lose one player, Fornea, so we have a solid group returning for next year,” concluded Meyerchick.

Northside’s Woods topped all scorers, tallying 20 while also contributing 11 rebounds.

Shawneisha Prejean came off the bench to add 10 points to the winning total.