Parkway girls basketball gets huge district win over Huntington

BOSSIER CITY, LA (KTAL/KMSS) — The Parkway Lady Panthers (14-6) opened their district slate at home against the defending state champions Huntington (12-6).

The Lady Raiders led at halftime 31-30, but Parkway would battle back in a physical and scrappy four quarters of basketball.

During the fourth quarter, Huntington led by as many as 10 points, but the Lady Panthers would not go away without a fight. Senior guard Zara Baker caught fire from beyond the arc, draining three 3’s in a matter of moments. Her last bucket gave Parkway a 58-55 lead.

Although trailing by double digits with four minutes to go, the team believed they could make a comeback, and they did just that, winning 59-58.

“Just the belief and know that we can do it, because we all knew that we could do it we just had to put in the effort, do what we had to do, listen to the coaches and make it happen,” Baker said.

Baker finished the game with a team high 16 points, with nine coming in the fourth quarter.

Head coach Brittney Dukes had that same belief when it came down to the wire.

“We’re tough. We’ve done it over and over again. We tell them, hey, two possession game, three possession game, we count possessions. We don’t count total points being down, we keep the main thing, the main thing, and that’s all playing together, and hard for each other and having fun when you do it. When you make big shots like that and you see your teammates being hyped, saying let’s go, that’s a momentum changer, and that shifts the energy of the game,” Dukes stated.

Huntington was led by Kaylie Dupree and Kyndal Graham who combined for 45 of the Lady Raiders 58 points, respectively.

Parkway returns to action on Fri., Jan 23, when the Lady Panthers host Natchitoches Central. Huntington is set to host Evangel on the same day.

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