Lady Leps Rally to Defeat Gonzales by Four

Thanks to a big scoring night from Campbell Cooper and a strong team-wide defensive performance, the La Grange Lady Leps came from behind at home Tuesday to defeat Gonzales 40-36.

Cooper scored a teamhigh 19 points as the Lady Leps improved to 5-3 this season.

“We finally are grasping our concepts of defensive schemes,” said La Grange head coach Heath Golan. “It’s new this year, and if we can play defense on a given night the offense will come from that. We are starting to figure things out.”

Gonzales led 29-28 with four minutes left in the game when La Grange went on a 9-0 run fueled by baskets from Cara Homer, Cooper and Kylie Trlicek.

But Gonzales wouldn’t die and the Lady Apaches went on their own 7-0 run to pull to within 37-36 with a minute left in the game.

But a three-pointer by Cooper with 50 seconds left in the game ensured the victory for the Lady Leps.

“Tonight was her night,” said Golan, of Cooper.

Now the Lady Leps turn their attention to their first home tournament in decades – the Schmeckenfest Shootout, which is a massive boys and girls varsity tournament this Thursday-Saturday.

“We used to host one when I first got here 26 years ago. It was a boys tournament,” Golan said. “It’s something Coach Cooper (athletic director) and Coach Collier (in his second year as La Grange boys head basketball coach) wanted to get going – to host more events. I’m excited about it. It brings a lot of people to the community, gets people in here and shows people what La Grange is about – and with Schmeckenfest going on (La Grange’s downtown holiday festival Thursday) they will get a chance to see that too.”

12/3/24

La Grange girls 40 Gonzales 36

La Grange 9 9 8 14 – 40 Gonzales 10 8 6 12 – 36 La Grange scoring: Campbell Cooper- 19, Kylie Trlicek- 6, Cara Homer- 4, Kaylee Holmes-4, Macie Collier- 3, Ella Nygren-2, Avery Griffin- 1, Hannah Gross- 1.