BY DAVID FOLSE II

Sports Editor

NEW ORLEANS-East St. John knew that one of the only ways that Jesuit had a chance to win was if they slowed the game down and kept it low scoring.

East St. John granted that request of the Blue Jays, but denied them the most important one.

A victory and birth in the second round.

Behind 13 points from the dominating inside presence of Jamal Breaux and 17 combined points from Ryan Perrilloux and Ricardo Porter, the Wildcats defeated Jesuit, 50-38 last Friday night on the road to advance to the second round.

East St. John’s opponent in the second round of the playoffs last night was John Ehret.

A close game early, the Wildcats outscored the Blue Jays 16-3 in the second quarter to build a double-digit lead heading into the half.

Jesuit would never again take the lead in the game.

“We expected them to be a great executing team,” East St. John Head Coach Charles Julian said. “That is basically what we wanted. We wanted to come in and play hard and play smart, not allow our intensity and our energy make us do bad things.

“I would not consider it an upset victory because I felt like going into the game felt confident in what our kids could do.I thought that our athletic ability was what was going to take us over the top if we played smart basketball and we were able to do that.”

Julian was impressed with his team’s execution and ability to play smart basketball.

“We came out and played really well,” Julian said. “We came out defensively and really pressured the ball. We made it tough for them (Jesuit) to get shots.”

Julian said the inside presence of Breaux makes his entire team better and more effective from offensively and defensively.

“The key thing about his 13 points was that they were 13 high percentage points,” Julian said. “He may not be the fastest player that we have, but his body is so large that he is going to give us a major defensive presence and on offense you have to respect him because of the type of high percentage shots that he takes.

“That opens the game up for Ricardo Porter and Ryan Stipe. If you do come out and try and stop them, you have Ryan Perrilloux to deal with inside. We have a five-headed monster offensively.”