Parkway (Louisiana) says, 'Hello, Larry,' as girls 'Marsh Madness' finally gets signature moment: Buck's Ballpark
HAMMOND, LOUISIANA - Before Thursday night, this week’s LHSAA girls basketball “Marsh Madness” was a tournament largely bereft of any drama.
There was a lot of one-sided games and not very many upsets. Earlier on Thursday, there was a big upset when No. 5 seed Woodlawn-Baton Rouge knocked off top-seeded Huntington in the Division I select semifinals, but the final margin of victory for the Lady Panthers was 13 points.
In other words, not really a lot of one shining moments.
Until Thursday night, when Parkway’s Chloe Larry essentially and literally willed her team to an improbable victory in the Division I non-select semifinals.
Larry capped a frantic fourth quarter and overtime with a dramatic shot she released from just beyond half-court. The ball went arrow straight toward the goal and hit nothing but net, lifting the defending champion Lady Panthers to a dramatic 64-63 win in overtime against No. 1 seeded and previously undefeated Walker.
“I was in shock, I was emotional. … I don’t know, I’m still in shock right now,” said Larry, a senior guard who came in as the Lady Panthers’ top scorer and finished the night with 29 points.
But before the unbelievable finish, it appeared as if the game was going to be another one that wasn’t going to be decided late. Walker took control late in the first half and then built a double-digit lead in the third, going up by as many as 17 points. The Lady Wildcats then entered the fourth quarter with a 15-point lead.
Then, in the blink of an eye, it was all gone. Parkway finally got some baskets to fall, with Zara Baker-Scanlon making three baskets and Larry getting a huge 3 as the Lady Panthers scored the first 13 points of the fourth quarter to pull within two.
With more than two minutes left in regulation, Larry hit a mid-range jumper that got the Lady Panthers all the way back, 57-all. It remained that score at the end of regulation, when Walker had a chance to win it at the end but an attempted baseline drive rolled off the rim.
Just inside the final minute of overtime, Walker went up by three and extended the lead to four with 27 seconds left.
On the next possession, Parkway let precious seconds go off the clock before Larry was able to hit a shot with 5.2 seconds left. Exactly one second later, Baker-Scanlon picked up her fifth foul, the third Lady Panther to foul out and second to do so in overtime.
That sent Walker’s RayOnna Sterling to the foul line to make two shots to hopefully ice the game for her team. But she was unable to convert both shots, and Parkway - which was out of time outs - corralled the rebound.
The ball eventually ended up in Larry’s hands as she sprinted toward half-court while keeping an eye on the clock. With 0.5 seconds left, she fired up a prayer.
It was answered as the buzzer sounded, and Larry was predictably mobbed by her teammates while fans inside the University Center - both Parkway and Walker fans and even those without any affiliation to both - couldn’t believe what transpired.
And suddenly there was not one shining moment but a multitude of them, all at once. To invoke the name of the classic McLean Stevenson sitcom from the late 1970s, “Marsh Madness,” say “Hello, Larry.”
“We were at the free-throw line and we were saying, ‘If they make a shot, we’re going to run a play called four-cross,’” Larry said. “But then I was like, we don’t have time for that; it’s probably going to get stolen, so just give me the ball.
“And then they missed it, actually, so then we got it. I ran and I just threw it up. We were actually practicing it earlier (Thursday) and hey, I made it.”
So naturally, the question was posed to Larry in the postgame press conference, did she ever hit a shot like that to end a game before Thursday.
“In a game, not at the end of a game, but I hit one in the middle,” she said.
To which Parkway coach Gloria Williams quickly interjected, “But it was a lot closer, it wasn’t that deep.”
Parkway players Chloe Larry (left) and Dakota Howard pose with their coach, Gloria Williams, after the Lady Panthers' 64-63 overtime win against Walker in the Division I non-select semifinals Feb. 29, 2024.
When Larry released her miracle shot, it appeared a Walker player made contact with her, but no foul was called. As Larry released the shot, falling toward the court, her facial expression appeared to be in the direction of an official, like “Where’s the foul?”
She didn’t get one, though. But that was obviously OK in the end.
“There was a lot of contact, but you know, we don’t get those fouls at the end of the game,” said Larry, who will be heading to play at Tennessee Tech next season. “You’ve just got to take the shot and take the contact as well.”
Parkway put together one of the most dominant seasons in Louisiana girls basketball last season, a team led by Mikaylah Williams, already making an impact as a freshman at LSU. But the Lady Panthers returned to Hammond as the No. 5 seed and perceived as the underdogs going up against a 33-0 Walker squad.
“In all honesty, I told my kids we were the underdogs,” Williams said. “We’re the defending state champions, but we were the underdog.
“They were the 1 seed, we were the 5 seed coming in, so to me that was a little less pressure because everyone expected them to win, so it was more pressure on them than it is for us and when you’re free like that, you can go out and play and not carry that burden with you.”
But it took until the fourth quarter before the Lady Panthers could really feel like the pressure was off. That included Larry, as the team didn’t even score a point until past the midway point of the opening quarter.
“I just knew my team needed me and I wasn’t really there at first, but then I started to get going and I just kept going,” Larry said.
Parkway now gets to enjoy a day off before returning to the court at the University Center with the chance to finish off what appeared to be an unexpected repeat. Williams, for one, is thankful the Lady Panthers don’t have to play again until Saturday, when they take on Denham Springs, which beat Mandeville in Thursday's other semifinal.
“Absolutely,” she said. “We’ll celebrate (Thursday) night and let the kids enjoy it, let this staff enjoy it and let the crowd and our fans enjoy, but then (Friday) it’s back to business because we’ve got (Denham Springs).”
But regardless of what happens in that game, or even the other championship games taking place Friday and Saturday, this “Marsh Madness” already has its memorable one shining moment.
Hello, Larry.
Photo of Parkway's Chloe Larry
-- Buck Ringgold | buck@scorebooklive.com | @SBLiveLA
