Jakobe Shepeard never played a minute of varsity basketball before this season.

The St. Augustine senior found the wait to be worth his while after what happened Friday, when the 6-foot-4 Shepeard scored a team-high 19 points and helped the fourth-seeded Purple Knights defeat No. 5 Alexandria 57-43 in an LHSAA Division I select state quarterfinal.

St. Augustine (28-4) will face reigning state champion Liberty, the No. 1 seed, in a semifinal next week at the state tournament in Lake Charles.

“I feel like me being on (junior varsity) last year gave me the drive to want to win something,” said Shepeard, whose biggest contribution came when he scored 11 points in the third quarter.

Shepeard scored his team’s first seven points after halftime and chipped in two more baskets during a 14-0 run that widened the St. Augustine lead to 18 points before the period ended.

Shepeard made a 3-pointer early in the quarter and scored late in the period when he intercepted a pass near midcourt and put down the first of his two dunks that brought the St. Augustine crowd to its feet.

“I told him before the game he needed to be who he is,” said St. Augustine coach Wade Mason, who called Shepeard “our most talented player.”

Mason said Shepeard has “sacrificed so much this year because there’s been several games where he had to guard the other team’s best player.”

“I hate that because it takes away from his offense,” Mason said. “But tonight, I needed him to be a dude, and he was.”

St. Augustine led by eight points after the first quarter and never let Alexandria get closer than four the rest of the way.

Sophomore point guard Aaron Miles scored 11 of his 14 points and made two 3-pointers before halftime. He went to the bench for nearly four minutes in the third quarter after he took a knee to the thigh during a drive to the basket.

Senior Kolbin Jefferson replaced Miles and scored four points and assisted on another basket during the long scoring run that put St. Augustine ahead 46-28 before the third quarter ended. He finished with six points.

Senior Brayden Boyd had four points and seven rebounds. Senior Khalil Jones made a 3-pointer. Senior Tye Williams dunked on a put-back during the long scoring run.

“The tale of the game was the third quarter,” said Alexandria coach Lance Brasher, whose team did not score over the final five minutes in that period. “The third quarter we were awful as far as execution and getting the matchups where we wanted it.”

Junior Jarvell Bordelon scored 14 points for Alexandria (27-7). Tyshawn Duncan, a 6-6 senior, fouled out after he had eight points, six rebounds and five blocked shots.

The win advanced St. Augustine to the state tournament for the first time since it won a Division I state title in 2021. The Purple Knights have won eight state titles, including the 1995 championship that was won with Mason as a leading player.

“Like I tell them all the time, I want them to experience what I did,” Mason said. “That’s all I want. I want them to experience it because I know it’s life changing. They’re experiencing something now that they never dreamed of.”