McCain’s 23 leads five Eagles in double digits

By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

After losses on the road at the St. Charles WOW Classic and the C.Y.O. Basketball Classic in the last two weeks, Reserve Christian Coach Timmy Byrd said that he needed to see more intensity out of his players away from their home gym.

The message was apparently heard loud and clear.

The Eagles outscored West St. John 39-22 in the first half of the Rams’ regular season opener on Tuesday, and rode the momentum to a 79-49 victory at West St. John.

“We played like we play at home,” said Byrd. “We did a real good job on our help defense. We played with energy, played physically, with great effort and execution.”

Eddren McCain led a balanced effort for the Eagles (18-5) with 23 points. Chris Roussell scored 19. Lucas Martin added 13. Cedric Jenkins scored 11, and Kyle McClue scored 10.

For the Rams (0-2) Alton Joseph scored 16. Raynard Thomas scored 11.

West St. John’s basketball season has gotten off to a late start due to the success of the Rams’ football team, which made the Class 1A championship game.

“I thought we played well despite the score,” said West St. John coach Antoine Edwards. “We’ve got guys coming off of football who aren’t in basketball shape yet, we don’t have out conditioning and our legs.

“You can’t expect to come straight off the field and onto the court and compete with a team like Reserve Christian, who’s been practicing together and are in mid-season form.”

Byrd said that he stressed the importance of getting up on the road to his team before the game.

“Our place is an exciting place to play,” said Byrd. “But we stressed bringing our A-game with us on the road before the game. We didn’t allow them to go on any real runs, and were consistent the entire game. It was a huge difference.”

West St. John moved on to play its second game of the season on Thursday, another home game. This time, it came against St. James, who got out to a big lead early on its way to a 75-60 road win.

Blake Comminie led the way with 14 points for the Rams. Brandon Green scored 12.

St. James led 17-10 after a quarter and 39-24 at halftime.

“We turned it over a lot,” said Edwards. “It’s going to be a step by step process as we get into game shape.”