Reserve Christian fends off late charge by Lady Rams
Published 12:00 am Saturday, December 2, 2000
MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / December 2, 2000
EDGARD – Reserve Christian held off a late West St. John rally to pull out a63-59 victory on the road Tuesday night.
Reserve Christian improved to 5-5 overall while West St. John fell to 0-4.Trenelle Smith scored a game-high 21 points for the Lady Eagles. TreneceSmith added 14 points and Renee Delaneuville 10. Amber Schlesingercontributed nine.
West St. John was led by Tana Mitchell with 12 points. Janell Morris added 10points and Taryn Pierce eight. Ciarra Borne and Latoya Borne added sevenpoints apiece.
Reserve Christian took a 59-50 lead with 2:22 remaining on two free throws by Delaneuville. But West St. John took advantage of three straight LadyEagles turnovers to pull to within 59-55 on Keyen Weber’s 3-pointer from the left corner with 1:11 remaining.
The lead shrunk to 59-57 with 46 seconds left as Jada Bethancourt hit two free throws. Julia Roussell then stole a pass at midcourt but was called fortraveling. After a Reserve Christian timeout, Trenece Smith took theinbounds pass and drove in for a layup, making it 61-57 with 20 seconds left.
But Reserve Christian could not put the Lady Rams away and Mitchell cut the deficit to two with two free throws with 7.6 seconds left. Mary Venus tookthe inbounds pass and dribbled into the front court before being fouled with two-tenths of a second left. Venus then iced the game by making both freethrows.
“It was tough,” Reserve Christian coach Kevin Branch said. “It was a RiverParishes rivalry and some of the girls knew each other from the recreation leagues. Our first five girls came out strong and I take my hats off to them.They are doing a great job.”Morris hit two free throws to give the Lady Rams a 46-45 lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter. But Schlesinger answered with a put back onthe next possession to give the Lady Eagles the lead for good. A drive alongthe left baseline by Smith made it 51-46 with 4:23 remaining in the game.
West St. John cut the deficit to 53-50 as Pierce bounced in a shot with 3:20left. But the Lady Eagles answered with six straight points over the nextminute, including a jumper by Smith to make it 57-50 with 2:54 left.
West St. John came back from a 33-31 halftime deficit to score the firsteight points of the second half. Morris took a pass from Ciarra Borne insideto tie the game on the half’s opening possession. Borne scored inside, thenbounced a pass to Morris underneath for a 39-33 lead with 5:26 left in the third quarter.
Trenelle Smith then led a Reserve Christian comeback, scoring 10 straight points. After hitting five straight points, Smith hit a jumper from the leftside to pull the Lady Eagles to within one. A possession later, Smith regainedthe lead with a 3-pointer from the left side, making it 43-41 with 3:35 left.
Pierce hit a hook shot in the paint to give West St. John back the lead withtwo minutes left in the quarter. But with time running down, Trenece Smiththrew deep to Schlesinger who put up a shot at the buzzer, giving Reserve Christian a 45-44 lead.
Neither team could pull away in the first half. Reserve Christian took a 12-9lead with 2:05 left in the first quarter on a drive by Schlesinger. Pierce thenbanked in a shot and Mitchell buried a jumper in the lane with 2.1 secondsleft, giving the Lady Rams a 14-13 lead after the first quarter.
Reserve Christian came back to take a 15-14 lead early in the second on a layup by Joanna Ortiz. The lead continued to bounce back and forth with WestSt. John going ahead, 21-20, on a jumper by Pierce with 4:18 left. Mitchell hittwo free throws and Ciarra Borne drove in from the left side to make it 27- 22 with 2:44 left.
Reserve Christian answered again as Trenelle Smith hit a running jumper in the lane to tie the game at 29. There was a foul underneath on the play andDelaneuville hit both ensuing free throws to give the Lady Eagles the lead.
Two more free throws by Delaneuville made it 33-29 with 49 seconds left before Morris hit two of her own to cut the deficit to 33-31 with 2.6 secondsleft in the half. The Lady Rams finished the game with 25 free throws in 36attempts.
Return To Sports Stories
Copyright © #Thisyear# Wick Communications, Inc.Best viewed with 4.0 or higher