Ted Lewis/The Times-Picayune, March 01, 2012 6 a.m.

HAMMOND - Theres a sports axiom that unlike their male counterparts, female teams have to really, really like each other in order to be successful.

If thats so, then how do you square this from Salmen senior point guard Jade Johnson - Outside of basketball we dont really hang around much. We do our bonding at practice. But mentally, were just sort of all over the place. with the fact that the Spartans are 27-1, on a 23-game winning streak and are playing Vandebilt Catholic tonight in the Class 4A semifinals at Southeastern Louisiana University?

Its just a chemistry we seem to have, senior forward Samara Dingiswayo said. We do a lot of three-on-three work in practice and the coaches sub us in and out in games a lot, so everybody knows how to work with everybody else.

We dont talk a lot about whos happy or whos unhappy. Everybody seems pretty happy to me.

Obviously, with a season like the Spartans are having, theres a lot to be happy about.

A program that last reached the semifinals in 2000 that had struggled somewhat after that due to the departure of long time coach Pam Slayton compounded by Hurricane Katrina which devastated the campus and has since reduced enrollment by about 100 only regained its footing last year with a co-district championship with Ursuline.

This season with the arrival of 6-foot-3 freshman phenom Kalani Brown plus the emergence of several other freshmen and sophomores, Salmen hasnt had a close game in almost two months. The Spartans have won their last 11 games by an average of 28.2 points including playoff victories by 36, 21 and 17 point-margins.

And when the team actually does get in a bit of trouble such as in Mondays quarterfinal game against Broadmoor when they trailed 25-22 late in the third quarter they can go on a roll.

Salmen closed that game on a 26-4 run to win by 17.

Originally posted here:
Team chemistry has Salmen playing in Class 4A girls basketball semifinals