State champions and history-makers headline the Louisiana Sports Writers’ Association’s 2023 Class 3A All-State basketball teams.
Record-breaking St. Louis star Paris Guillory and four-time Port Allen state champion Elliot McQuillan were selected as Outstanding Player award winners to top the girls and boys squads, respectively.
The unanimously voted Guillory, now a three-time LSWA all-state first-teamer, averaged 27.1 points, 10.8 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 3.6 steals to lead the Saints to a fifth straight title game appearance.
Guillory, a Louisiana Tech signee, was her team’s lone returning starter from its 2022 championship run.
And she capped her decorated prep career with a 41-point semifinal to the single-game state tournament scoring record (Kim Mulkey, Hammond, 1980), then another 27 points in the final to break the two-game state tournament mark for Class 3A/Division II (Brenda Porter, Amite, 1970).
St. Louis Catholic finished 27-7 as state runner-up in the Division II select bracket.
McQuillan earns all-state first-team honors for the second consecutive year after honorable mention recognition as a sophomore.
After playing an increasing role on three straight Class 2A titles, the sharpshooting senior guard averaged 18 points, six rebounds and five steals to help his Pelicans win the Division-III non-select crown in their first year back in Class 3A.
Port Allen finished 29-4, including a 15-1 mark against teams in 3A, 2A and 1A
Parkview Baptist’s Brett Shelton and Iowa’s Ron Melanson were selected for the respective Coach of the Year honors.
Shelton led the Lady Eagles to an improbable turnaround from 7-19 and missing the playoffs in 2022 to a 30-5 mark and Division-II select state championship, the program’s first since 2017.
The young roster grew together and peaked at the right time to win 13 of their final 14 contests, including quarterfinal, semifinal and final defeats of No. 4 St. Thomas Aquinas, No. 1 Isidore Newman and No. 6 Episcopal of Baton Rouge — each of which had reached the 2022 state tournament.
Melanson coached Iowa to a 29-6, including a 14-game winning streak, an 11-1 record and co-championship in a challenging District 3-3A and the first state tournament run in program history.
The Yellow Jackets had won just two playoff games from 2011 to 2020 — first-round games in 2016 and 2017 — and missed the postseason entirely twice in that span.
But Melanson and company have now built from a 2018 playoff absence to a second-round appearance in 2021 and runs to the 2022 quarterfinals and 2023 semis.
CLASS 3A ALL-STATE BASKETBALL TEAMS
BOYS
FIRST TEAM
Rictavion Johnson, Carroll
Courtney McCarthy, Richwood
Josh Smith, Madison Prep
Elliot McQuillan, Port Allen
Isaiah Howard, Port Allen
SECOND TEAM
Jordan Comanche, Wossman
Jaylen Welch, Bolton
Demond Davis, Patterson
Dylan Dominique, Madison Prep
Dashawn Ceasar, Iowa
OUTSTANDING PLAYER: ELLIOT MCQUILLAN, PORT ALLEN
COACH OF THE YEAR: ROB MELANSON, IOWA
HONORABLE MENTION: Jae’Kwon Gulley, Caldwell Parish; Blane Parish, Buckeye; Kendall Francois, Patterson; Cornelius Brown, Kennedy; Desamonte Gradney, Iowa; Cooper Nelson, Sterlington; Damien Walters, Union; Xzander Washington, Richwood; Ryan Batiste, Lake Charles College Prep; Elijah Garrick, Lake Charles College Prep; M.J. Sternfels, E.D. White; Kobe Brown, St. James; Chase Schonberg, Donaldsonville; Jayvyn Duncan, St. Martinville, Lavion Owens, Carroll; Antron Mason II, Wossman; Cardez Norman, Sterlington; Seth Mays, University; Jayce Depron, Madison Prep; Davante Landry, Sophie B. Wright, and Sage Papillion, Ville Platte High.
GIRLS
FIRST TEAM
Anyra Wilson, Wossman
DaNaya Ross, Wossman
Paris Guillory, St. Louis
Haley Brumfield, Amite
Aubrey Hoyt, Albany
SECOND TEAM
Sky Montgomery, Bolton
Carlesia Fields, Bunkie
Caroline Adams, E.D. White
Addyson Bernhard, Parkview Baptist
D’Jaiyah Levy, Abbeville
OUTSTANDING PLAYER: PARIS GUILLORY, ST. LOUIS
COACH OF THE YEAR: BRETT SHELTON, PARKVIEW BAPTIST
HONORABLE MENTION: Ramiah Augurson, Wossman; Mariah Heard, Bastrop; Hope Tucker, Sterlington; Shelbi Moses, Buckeye; Raelyn Gunter, South Beauregard; Leah Varisco, Sacred Heart-NO; Ava Shields, Albany; Lybi Cross, Buckeye; Kylee Savant, Doyle; Kennedy Aldridge, University; Anna Richardson, Parkview Baptist; Shaine Parker, Church Point; Jalyn Williams, South Beauregard.
Written for the LSWA by Jerit Roser