Michelle Ogashi hates to lose.

It shows up in her scoring - Ogashi topped 1,000 points for her career earlier this season - and with her consistent play for the New Iberia Senior High girls’ basketball team, which plays at Ponchatoula Monday in a Class 5A regional playoff game.

And Ogashi plans to help the Lady Jackets get past the second round for the first time since 2004, when NISH reached the quarterfinals. No matter that Ponchatoula is seeded third and New Iberia 14th.

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“This year I think we can go all the way,” said Ogashi, one of three seniors for NISH. “We got athletes, young athletes at that.”

Lady Jackets coach Robert Pinckney said that Ogashi has been a standout for his team this season.

“At times when other players have been struggling, she’s been a bright light for us,” said Pinckney. “You know what you’re going to get from Michelle. She’s going to battle to the end.

“That’s been her biggest asset. She doesn’t like to lose. She loves to compete.”

Ogashi has been the starting point guard for the Lady Jackets this season, and remains one of the team’s leading scorers. She led NISH with 19 points in a 63-36 win over East St. John Thursday to open the playoffs, but thinks her squad has things to improve upon, despite its blowout win.

“We played good, but we’re still capable of showing a little more,” she said.

In order to do that against Ponchatoula (33-4), which beat its District 7-5A rival Northshore 71-48 in the first round of the playoffs, NISH must play better, she said. Ponchatoula was ranked third in the final Louisiana Sports Writers Association poll for Class 5A.

“We need to set the tempo,” said Ogashi.

“We need to go up and down (the court) so we can put them away early.”

Ogashi was the 2 guard for most of her career, though she said she usually ended up at the point for most contests as the games progressed.

“It’s basically the same,” she said. “If I can’t score, I look to my teammates to score (with) penetration and kickouts.”

A standout track athlete as well, Ogashi placed third in the triple jump at the Class 5A state meet last year in Baton Rouge and was a member of the state champion 4x200 relay team as a sophomore.

“She has that track mentality,” said Pinckney. “Track is an individual sport, one-on-one. She brings that attitude to the basketball court. It’s her game.”

She also has taken more of a leadership role this year, along with fellow seniors G.G. Williams and Raquelle Collins.

“I just need to set an example because I am a senior,” said Ogashi. “If I’m doing something good, they are going to want to follow.”

Ogashi said she’s improved a lot since her freshman year, and personal struggles have made her appreciate what she’s achieved and pushed her to achieve more. The death of her mother, Jacklin Gerac Dudley, at the end of her sophomore year, has had a lasting effect.

“My mom’s dying really motivated me,” said Ogashi, whose mother was the first black woman elected to the Iberia Parish Council. Her grandmother, Peggy Gerac, is a former New Iberia city councilwoman.

Jacklin Gerac Dudley had fought cancer, and spent more than 100 days in the hospital after suffering two strokes in the spring of 2006.

“She was already sick, but then she started getting better,” recalls Ogashi. “We thought she could come back home and have a nurse at home.”

That was not to be, as congestive heart failure contributed to Dudley’s death in her sleep, Peggy Gerac said at the time.

Ogashi said her mother’s death made her look at her life more closely.

“It just pushed me, how she would want me to do, how she would want me to be a winner and a leader,” said Ogashi.

She thinks her mother would have been proud of her.

“Of course,” she said. “Even if I don’t win, she still would know I did my best.”