By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

If the East St. John Ladycats were suffering from any kind of fatigue due to a loaded early schedule of games, their recent play indicates that it’s a thing of the past.

The team dominated its first two games at the Hammond 5A roundup, logging a 69-31 win over Fontainebleau on Wednesday, then a 78-42 victory over Hammond on Thursday.

The 5A roundup is a round robin style tournament that pits three teams from District 6-5A — ESJ, Destrehan and St. Amant — against teams from District 7-5A — Hammond, Fontainebleau and Mandeville. At press time on Thursday night, District 6-5A was up four wins to one.

Despite sitting out the fourth quarter, Mechel’le Thomas led East St. John (10-2) with 23 points in the team’s win over Hammond. Wanisha Creecy scored 16 and Korielle Tucker added 13.

“There’s no way we could play much better than we did tonight,” said ESJ Coach Troy Giordano.

Specifically, the third quarter spelled the end for Hammond (2-5). The Wildcats led 38-27 at halftime, and in an attempt to come back, the Tornados tried to push the tempo.

That backfired. East St. John outscored Hammond 30-9 and hit eight of its 13 threes in the third quarter.

“That was unbelievable,” said Giordano. “They were behind, so they had to try something to catch up. That opened the floor up for us. They got into a running game with us, and that’s usually bad news.”

The game was essentially over much quicker against Fontainebleau (5-2) on Tuesday. The Wildcats scored 33 points in the first quarter and held the Bulldogs to six.

“We came out and shot extremely well,” said Giordano. “We pressed them and got on top of them a little bit. We played really well, I’m very happy with the effort.”

From there, the Wildcat reserves maintained and build upon the 27-point lead to finish with a 69-31 win.

Tucker scored 12 to lead ESJ. Phallon Schnyder, Creecy and Thomas each scored nine.

11 the Wildcats’ 12 players scored in the game.