MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / December 20, 2000

Editor’s Note: This is the fifth installment in the East St. John Lady Catsbasketball diary, a special project of L’Observateur.

RESERVE – Like a mall Santa Claus, there is little rest for the weary in high school basketball after Thanksgiving and into December.

With turkey probably still left over from the Thanksgiving holidays, the East St. John Lady Cats are back in action the following Monday at GraceKing.

But for the Lady Cats starters, this will not be a long night. East St. Johntakes a 27-0 lead after the first quarter and cruises to a 64-22 victory.

Every team member sees action. The starters play only the first quarterwith Velinda Ard scoring a game-high 13 points in the first eight minutes.

Three days later, East St. John is back on the road again, this time headingto the Zachary Tournament. After a bye in the first round, the Lady Catsmeet East Ascension in the semifinals. It would turn out to be a long nightin more ways than one.

East St. John takes a 24-22 lead at the half but East Ascension comesback to tie the game at the end of regulation. At the end of the firstovertime trailing by one, East St. John shoots two free throws with achance to win. The Lady Cats make one to tie.With time running out in the second overtime, an East Ascension player puts up a shot while falling out of bounds. The shot goes in, forcing a thirdovertime. And at the end of the third overtime, the Lady Cats are again atthe line with a chance to win. East St. John makes one of the three shotsas East Ascension holds on for a 76-73 win. Kinya Lennix scores 23 pointsand Erin Keller and Kojavona Hamilton 17 apiece in the losing cause.

“It was a nightmare,” East St. John head coach Troy Giordano said. “Thekids played hard the whole time. Things just weren’t falling for us.”Things get better two nights later as the Lady Cats rebound to defeat White Castle, 72-48, for third place in the tournament. Lennix scores 23points, Hamilton 18 and Keller 12. Lennix and Keller are named to the all-tournament team.

“We played a really good basketball game,” Giordano said.

East St. John stays on the road, traveling to Mount Carmel for a rematchthree days later. The Lady Cats had played one of their best defensivegames of the season in defeating the Cubs, 48-29, during the Battle on the Bayou at the Alario Center in mid-November.

This time the game would be much closer. East St. John jumps out to a 15-7 first quarter lead before Mt. Carmel rallies to pull to within 20-19 atthe half. But a 10-3 third quarter run helps the Lady Cats pull away to a48-40 victory. Danielle Stemley leads the way with 13 points while Kellerand Lennix score 10 points apiece.

“Stemley came up big, especially in the second half,” Giordano said. “Itwas a good game. It was their second time playing us and they were readyfor us.”The road doesn’t get any easier as East St. John travels to St. Amant thefollowing Thursday. The game stays close throughout the first half as theLady Cats take a five-point lead into halftime. Midway through the thirdquarter, East St. John begins to pull away, outscoring the Lady Gators 15-5 in the quarter. The Lady Cats cruise from there to a 70-51 win.East St. John again has a player step up big as Ard puts up 14 points to gowith double-digit rebounds and a couple of blocks. Lennix scores a game-high 24 points and Stemley adds 11.

The victory improves the Lady Cats to 11-2 on the season. But the nextroad trip will take them to one of the teams that handed them one of those losses – Dominican. Dominican defeated East St. John, 65-38, in thesemifinals of the Battle on the Bayou, the worst loss the Lady Cats had suffered under Giordano.

But this time, it’s East St. John that jumps out to a 13-11 lead at the endof the first quarter. Dominican bounces back to lead 27-24 at the break. A3-pointer by Raeonda Jasper makes it 39-35 late in the third quarter. Butthe Lady Cats then go cold from the field, going without a basket over the next four minutes.

Dominican takes advantage, scoring 10 straight points to take a 49-35 lead with 5:19 left. East St. John has two chances at 3-pointers thatwould have cut into the lead in the final minutes but sees both rim out.

The final ends up being 59-48.

Lennix leads all scorers with 20 points. Keller has nine and Stemley seven.”The kids played hard the whole night,” Giordano said. “The difference waswe got no points from the post position.”The game concludes the long road trip for the Lady Cats. They will returnhome in two days to play St. James in their first game in the East St. Johngym in over a month. It will also has a chance to be a historical night. Atstake is the team’s 50th straight win at home.

50 and Counting The East St. John gym has indeed been a friendly confine for the Lady Catsin recent years. The Lady Cats have not lost there since Troy Giordano tookover as head coach in 1996, a streak that has now reached 49 games. Aneven 50 can come this night against River Parishes rival St. James.With the River Road in St. James Parish being closed that night, the gamehas been moved to 5:30 p.m. But the Lady Cats don’t let the time changebother them, as they quickly take care of business. A pass from KinyaLennix to Velinda Ard makes it 8-0 with 5:30 to play in the first quarter.

St. James gets on the scoreboard on a put back by Raven Malancon with5:14 left. But Lennix answers with a jumper on the next trip down thecourt. That starts a 16-0 run to end the quarter. Erin Keller and DanielleStemley drill 3’s from the left wing and Kojavona Hamilton drives in to make it 24-2 at the end of the first quarter.

Giordano takes his starters out as the second quarter opens. The secondteam struggles early as St. James pulls to within 25-7 on a 3-pointer byJulie Dumas. But a drive by Courtney Drayton gets the Lady Cats started.Whitnee Chatman puts back a shot, then drives for another score off a rebound by Lacrisha Walker to make it 32-7 at the half.

East St. John keeps it up as the second half opens. Three-pointers byAshley Porter and Raeonda Jasper make it 40-10. Jasper then launchesanother 3-pointer that bounces in, making it 43-10 at the end of the third quarter. The final is 66-15.Chatman comes off the bench to score a game-high 19 points. Jasper addseight points and Porter six. Lennix and Ard both score six points in playingjust the first quarter.

“The first team moved the ball well,” Giordano says afterwards. “We gotto put in a new offense. The junior varsity needed to work on the triangleoffense as well so we got to work on two things we needed to work on.”The game marks the halfway mark of the season for the Lady Cats who stand at 12-3.

“We are doing good overall,” Giordano says. “We lost one game weshouldn’t have lost. We had some quality wins and we took one of thebetter teams in the state on the road down to the end. A lot of teams wishthey were 12-3. It’s a good start. It’s about where I thought we would be.We’re in good shape. I’m not panicking.”Giordano realizes the real season is about to begin. After a trip toRiverside and the Riverside Tournament, the Lady Cats open defense of their District 7-5A title at South Terrebonne.

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