MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / December 16, 2000

RESERVE – With a milestone on the line, East St. John quickly took care ofbusiness against St. James Thursday evening.The Lady Cats jumped out to a 24-2 lead at the end of the first quarter on their way to a 66-15 non-district win. The victory was the 50th straightfor East St. John on its home court.East St. John, coming off loss at Dominican Tuesday, improved to 12-3 onthe season.

Whitnee Chatman came off the bench in the second quarter to score a game-high 19 points for East St. John. Raeonda Jasper scored eight pointsover the final three quarters. Kinya Lennix and Velinda Ard had six pointsapiece in playing just the first quarter. Ashley Porter also had six points.St. James was led by Raven Malancon with 10 points. Julie Dumas hadthree points and Natalie Smith two.

Danielle Stemley scored off a steal by Ard and Ard took a pass from Lennix inside to give the Lady Cats an early 8-0 lead. Malancon got St. James onthe scoreboard with 5:14 left in the first quarter with a put back.

East St. John answered with a layup by Ard off a pass from KojavonaHamilton and a 3-pointer by Erin Keller to make it 15-2. Stemley hitanother 3-pointer from the left wing and Hamilton drove in for a layup to make it 24-2 at the end of the first quarter.

A jumper in the lane by Malancon and a 3-pointer from the left side by Dumas cut the deficit to 25-7 early in the second quarter. But with 2:56left in the half, Courtney Drayton drove in for a layup and was fouled.

Drayton missed the free throw but grabbed the rebound and was again fouled.

Drayton made the first of the two free throws with Chatman grabbing the rebound on the second one and tossing it back in, giving the Lady Cats a 30-7 lead. A layup by Chatman off a pass by Lacrisha Walker made it 32-7at the half.

Porter and Malancon traded 3-pointers early in the third quarter to make it 35-10. Two 3-pointers by Jasper made it 43-10 heading into the fourthquarter.

A 3-pointer by Porter helped the Lady Cats push the lead to 50-10 at the 6:20 mark. Malancon made it 54-13 with a 3-pointer from the left wing atthe 4:30 mark. Chatman took a pass inside by Jada Mason and Walker hit ajumper to make it 60-13 with two minutes left.

“The first team moved the ball well,” East St. John head coach TroyGiordano said. “We put in a new offense and got to work on it. You need agame like this to try to work on new things. The junior varsity needed towork on the triangle offense. We were able to get two things worked onwe needed to get worked on.”

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