By JOHNNY PEPPO

Sports Editor

RESERVE – Even the best season in school history couldn’t make up for an early playoff exit last Friday night at East St. John. In fact, it seemed to only make it worse.

The Wildcats drew a home playoff game against Ruston for the first round in the 5A bracket after going 27-10 through the season and claiming their first ever district title as co-champions in 5-5A along with Destrehan. The two Wildcat squads squared off for the first seed Monday night with Destrehan earning the right to face Airline. DHS was also eliminated in the bi-district round.

Against Ruston last Friday, ESJ got off to a shaky start. The Wildcats could manage only six points in the first eight minutes of play, mostly coming from Geohandre Dorsey. They caught on in the second quarter and began to close the gap, but Ruston made some halftime adjustments and took it into the final quarter still ahead by 4.

Trenton Marshall, Brandon Neal and Miguel Singleton all came up with clutch baskets in the final five minutes of play to bring ESJ to within a possession of the BearCats. But Ruston matched the East St. John press and kept pace with the home team’s 26 fourth quarter points to hold on to their fragile lead.

East St. John was within range right in the waning moments, but the BearCats put on the pressure and contested all of the Wildcat’s shots. Marshall had them primed to take a lead at one point with a pair of blocks on the defensive side, but several missed free throws and inside possessions proved unfruitful.

Marshall led the Wildcat effort with a game-high 22 points while Singleton got 12 and Neal posted ten.

The loss was a tough one for a team that made it to the quarter-finals of the playoffs last season, one that will be losing at least three seniors who played major contributions this year including Marshall, who held the hightest point average of all large school players in the region with nearly 23 per game.