Slidell’s Hannah Gambrell put up a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds as the Lady Tigers captured a 57-53 victory over the Salmen Lady Spartans in a game held Tuesday at Salmen.

Slidell improved to 5-3, while Salmen is 3-3.

The Lady Spartans trailed 55-53 with 9.8 seconds left and went to the free-throw line for a 1-and-1. The front-end was missed, but the Lady Spartans were able to get the ball back on a jump-ball following the missed free throw. After a Lady Spartans’ timeout, Salmen went for a shot, but the ball was knocked away. Slidell’s Lillian McAbee was fouled with 0.9 seconds left and knocked down both free throws to seal the victory.

Slidell'€™s Lillian McAbee drives to the bucket during Tuesday night'€™s game held at Salmen. Shown defensively for Salmen are Samara Dingiswayo (21) and Chelsie James (10). (Staff Photo by Chris Kinkaid)

Slidell’s biggest lead in the fourth quarter was nine at 51-42 with 5:30 left, but had to hang on for the win.

“I was just kind of hoping we’d come out on top,” Slidell coach Josh St. Cyr said. “These two teams are both good teams. Either team is capable of putting up five or six points in a minute. I knew it wasn’t over. I wanted us to be smart, but they put a lot of pressure defense on us. We didn’t handle it particularly well, but our pressure on them gave us a couple more buckets to win it at the end.”

St. Cyr also credited Salmen for hitting some key shots at the end.

In a wild game that both teams had opportunities to take over, Slidell held a 41-37 lead after the third quarter, but that was gone just 58 seconds into the final period as Salmen’s Rica Smith, who had 15 points, hit a turnaround jumper and Cydne Holden drained a 3-pointer to give Salmen a 42-41 advantage.

The Lady Spartans’ lead was short-lived as Gambrell hit a layup on the ensuing possession giving SHS a 43-42 edge. Then sophomore Kameron Lacoste hit two big treys extending the lead to 49-42, all during a 10-0 run.

Lacoste talked about her 3-pointers.

“I was off at first, but we kept slinging the ball, working our offense, played like a team and shots started falling,” Lacoste said.

Bianca Navarre capped the spurt with a pair from the charity stripe. That forced Salmen coach Kevin Anderson to call a timeout.

The Lady Spartans then worked the lead down. Chelsie James, who tallied seven points, hit a bucket and then Holden drove in for two, trimming it to 51-46.

After McAbee split free throws for SHS, freshman Samara Dingiswayo, who tallied eight points, knocked down a pair from the line.

Following a Slidell turnover, a baseline jumper by Dingiswayo cut the advantage to 52-50 with 2:11 left. Gambrell pushed the advantage back out to four with a layup, but James hit from behind the arc with 52 seconds left and Slidell’s lead was only 54-53. But that was as close as the Lady Spartans would get in the loss.

Salmen coach Anderson said his team blew some chances early on.

“Early on, we were playing, but it wasn’t really an intense game in the first quarter. I thought we lost that opportunity with a lot of easy missed layups and missed shots where we could’ve had a big lead. Their 2-2-1 press slowed things down. You’ve got to give them credit. It didn’t make that many turnovers, but it slowed the game where they controlled the pace,” Anderson said.