MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / January 12, 2000

DESTREHAN – Two down. Two to go.East St. John made it two-for-two in its pivotal road games in District 7-5A, winning at Destrehan, 61-48, Friday night. The Lady Cats, who havealready won at Hahnville, still have games at Central and South Lafourche remaining.

East St. John improved to 4-0 in district and 20-5 overall. Destrehan fellto 13-7 overall and 2-1 in district.

“Of the four hardest places to play, we’ve won two,” East St. John coachTroy Giordano said. “To win on the road like this is big. It’s not over yetbut this was a big district win.”East St. John got a scare early in the third quarter when leading scorerKinya Lennix went down with an injury while driving in for a layup to make it 31-25. Megan Stock then cut the deficit to three on a 3-pointerfrom the left wing.

Lennix came back into the game at the 4:13 mark after Kavonna Reese added two free throws to build the lead back to five. With the offensestruggling, Ginina Louis came up with one of the biggest shots of the game, a 3-pointer from the right corner to make it 36-28.

“They were making a run there but Louis hit the 3 in the corner and that pretty much put the nail in the coffin,” Giordano said.

Lennix then took over, hitting back-to-back jumpers, the second leading to a three-point play. After a jumper from the right side by Joevone Markey,Louis grabbed a steal and took it in. Louis then converted a three-pointplay after banking in a jumper to extend the lead to 46-30. Markey scoredon a put back to make it a 14-point game heading into the fourth quarter.

A drive inside by Diamonique Pollard cut the deficit to 12 early in the fourth quarter. But East St. John answered with a pass from Louis to Reeseinside and a put back by Velinda Ard. Jump shots by Louis and Lennix madeit 56-37 with 3:23 left in the game.

East St. John jumped out to a 6-0 lead on put backs by Reese and Ard and alayup by Lennix. Stock scored twice and Ashley Sentimore took a passinside from Quinina Sinceno to pull Destrehan to within 9-6. But DanielleStemley countered with a jumper, opening a 7-1 run for East St. John.Another jumper by Stemley made it 16-7 at the end of the first quarter.

That lead grew to 24-9 early in the second quarter on two jumpers by Lennix and a put back by Louis. Destrehan began chipping into the lead asPollard scored off a steal by Maren Cameron. A layup by Sentimore off asteal by Pollard cut the deficit to 27-17 with 2:46 left in the half.

Destrehan continued to pull close as Sentimore took a pass from Stock inside and Pollard hit a jumper from the left baseline. Sinceno followedwith a jumper in the lane, pulling the Lady Cats to within 27-23. Lennixanswered with a jumper as the clock wound down, making it a six-point game at the half.

Lennix led all scorers with 28 points. Louis contributed 12 points andReese added nine points. Stemley and Ard chipped in with six pointsapiece.

Stock led Destrehan with 14 points. Pollard and Markey each had 12 pointswith Sentimore chipping in with six points.

“I thought our defense was played well,” Destrehan coach Ulysses Frontha said. “We did a good job of breaking their pressure but we missed toomany easy shots. Against a good team like East St. John, when you get theshots you have to convert and we couldn’t. We got to three points but theygot their second wind. But it’s not over. We still have to play everybodyand we still have to play them again.”

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