By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

After losses in each of its first two district games, East St. John needed to get into the 6-5A win column in the worst way.

The Lady Wildcats did that on Tuesday – with authority.

East St. John established a 12-point lead after a quarter and would only build on that advantage on its way to a 53-21 victory at St. Amant.

Mechel’le Thomas led East St. John with 15 points. Wanisha Creecy and Laci Dent each added 13.

The Wildcats (17-11, 1-2) led the Gators (0-14, 0-3) 18-6 entering the second quarter, and 31-11 at halftime. From there, East St. John Coach Troy Giordano was able to play his reserves and get everyone playing time.

“As a coach, you want to use a game like this one to fix some of the things that your team has been doing wrong,” said Giordano. “We were able to work on some stuff. It was a pretty good performance, but we’re still a work in progress.”

But most importantly, the victory allowed the Wildcats to get the first district victory out of the way – particularly for the team’s youngest players.

“For our five freshman, this was their first district win,” said Giordano. “They got a taste of it. When you’re dealing with freshman, it’s hard to explain to them how different these games are and how much they mean, as opposed to pre-district. The crowds are bigger, and the games mean more.”

Giordano says that the Wildcats still have not put together a perfect, all-around game this year – and he hoped it would come as soon as Friday’s key district home clash with Dutchtown.

“The problem all year has been, if we have two kids playing well, we have two or three that aren’t,” Giordano said. “Maybe we’re not shooting well one time, or not boxing out well enough in another. You strive to hit that level where you’re clicking on all cylinders before district. That didn’t happen.

“We need to fix those things now, or we’ll be sitting home before long.”