Sports
Mandeville High School graduate Sierra Ballard just won a national championship with the LSU Gymnastics team. Ballard is a junior at LSU and competes in the vault, balance beam and floor exercise. At the national competition, Ballard hit her career best of 9.95 on the beam. St. Tammany's parish President Mike Cooper posted on Facebook congratulating the Mandeville star, and Ballard's local gym North Shore Gymnastics also gave her a shout out on their Facebook page. This is the first national championship for the LSU team.
Hello Brooklyn
"You're saying we are eleven games over .500, and I'm saying we've got to learn how to maintain leads. So, if we were able to maintain leads, we'd probably be fourteen, fifteen, or sixteen games over .500. So I think we are in an okay spot, but when we come back from break, we've got to be able to fine-tune some of the small nuances of the game." This quote by Zion Williamson is the perfect overview of the pre-All-Star break Pelicans. Blown leads fundamental mind lapses, yet still good enough to be one of the top teams in the Western Conference. More than halfway through the season, the Pelicans are one of the more challenging teams in the league to understand because some of their biggest strengths can also be their biggest weakness, depending on the night. Experiencing exhilarating highs (see 30+ point back-to-back victories over the Kings and Warriors) and debilitating lows (see 20+ point back-to-back losses to Thunder and Bucks), the season thus far has us asking one question:" Would the real New Orleans Pelicans please stand up?" It's halftime(kind of) now, so let's look at what's working, and what needs work.
Lets get into it!
Lets get into it!
Team Stats (Hornets @ Pelicans) Final Score: 112-132 Rebounds: 41-51 Assists: 29-32 Blocks: 8-3 Steals: 7-11 Turnovers: 13-12 Stat Leaders (Hornets/Pelicans) Scoring Leaders: LaMelo Ball, 29; Brandon Ingram, 28 Rebound Leaders: Nick Richards, 12; Brandon Ingram, 10 Assist Leaders: LaMelo Ball, 7; Brandon Ingram, 10 My Player of the Game: Brandon Ingram Takeaways Brandon Ingram had his third triple-double of his career, and he was huge for the Pelicans tonight. It was the first game back home since a long road stretch so it was big-time to see the Pels come out with the victory. CJ McCollum was the second-leading scorer with 22, but Jordan Hawkins had 21 points off the bench. The Pelicans set a new franchise three-point for a single game with 25 three-pointers made. New Orleans played really solid on defense in the second half, which was huge in getting the victory. Trey Murphy hit some big three's too, so it was a beautiful night behind the arc. Pels are now 25-17 on the season. Follow The Kneaux on X , and follow me there too @SportsChrissy.