ESJ advances to 5A title game

PHOTO: EAST ST. JOHN’S DANIELLE STEMLEY drives downcourt against Ruston’s Briley Brasher in the first quarter Thursday night. (Staff Photo by Michael Kiral) HAMMOND – The old saying about it’s not the size of the boy in the fight, it’s the size of the fight of the boy certainly applied to the East St. John Lady Cats Thursday night. East St. John, playing with a height disadvantage, used its advantage in quickness to defeat Ruston, 67-58, in the Class 5A semifinals of the Sweet 16 Tournament at the Southeastern Louisiana University Center. The Lady Cats (32-3) will play John Ehret, a 77-52 winner over Covington, in the championship game tonight. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. East St. John becomes the first River Parishes team to advance to a title game. The Lady Cats are also the first current member of District 7-5A to win a game in the Sweet 16. Ruston, which had upset top-ranked Southwood to advance to the semifinals, finished the season at 28-8. “It’s unbelievable,” senior Kinya Lennix, who had a game-high 26 points and a team-high 11 rebounds, said. “All year, nobody believed us. But we believed in ourselves. You can’t measure heart. Everybody has been measuring our height. But you can’t measure our heart, determination and hustle.” East St. John, which does not have a player over 5-10, was facing a Ruston team that had five players at least that height. But the Lady Cats were able to use their quickness to hold the Lady Bearcats to a 48-38 advantage on the boards. I thought our girls played hard,” East St. John head coach Troy Giordano said. “They played the way they played all season. They never quit. I thought our speed out-did their height. That’s what gave them the most problems. “I’m excited. We’re playing for the state championship. They did everything they were supposed to do. We stressed all week all five players going to the boards. We knew they had a height advantage. We had to play fundamental basketball. We had to box out. The key to the game was our speed and keeping them off the offensive boards.” Danielle Stemley and Kojavona Hamilton each had 12 points for the Lady Cats. Stemley also had six assists and three steals. Velinda Ard tossed in another 10 points and had seven points. Ruston was led by Regina Spivey with 21 points and 15 rebounds. Nastassja Levingston had 13 points, five steals and six boards. Victoria Umeri added eight rebound and six points. East St. John took a 37-33 into the break behind 22 points by Lennix and eight by Stemley. Ruston would tie the game three times in the early minutes of the third quarter, the last at 40 on two free throws by Spivey with 3:09 left. Ard gave East St. John the lead for good with two free throws with 2:18 remaining. Lennix followed with a jumper and Ard scored on a put back. Hamilton then scored off a pass by Stemley inside, making it 48-40 with 52.4 seconds left. Stemley buried a jumper from the free throw line to make it 50-42 at the end of the third quarter. A jumper by Lennix gave the Lady Cats a 52-42 lead on the first possession of the fourth quarter. Ruston rallied to pull to within 52-48 on two free throws by Spivey with 4:34 left. But on the ensuing possession, Stemley bounced a pass inside to Courtney Drayton to build the lead back to six. A jumper by Levingston made it 59-56 with 2:35. Again the Lady Cats answered as Hamilton scored on a put back. Lennix and Erin Keller put the game away with six straight free throws in the final 43 seconds. Ruston jumped out to a 12-4 lead with 5:22 left behind 3-pointers by Chris Hayes and Spivey and a layup by Katie Bradshaw. Lennix hit a jumper and a 3-pointer from the left arc to cut the deficit to 14-13. But Ruston came back with a put back by Umeri and a drive by Levingston off a steal at the buzzer to make it 18-14 at the end of the first quarter. “I don’t know if we had early stage fright but I know I had fright when they went ahead by eight,” Giordano said. The Lady Cats got over their early jitters in the second quarter. Stemley knocked down a 3-pointer from the top of the arc to make it 18-17 on the first possession of the second quarter. After Ruston got the lead back to 22-17 on a drive by Spivey, Lennix hit two free throws to pull the Lady Cats to within one. Two more free throws by Lennix tied the game at 29. Lennix buried a jumper from the top of the key to give the Lady Cats the lead for the first time at 31-29. After Ruston used a put back and a jumper by Umeri to tie the game at 33, Stemley found Ard inside. Lennix then hit two free throws with three seconds left to make it 37-33 at halftime.