By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

A dominant third quarter performance vaulted Reserve Christian to its fifth straight victory on Tuesday as it topped West St. John 92-54 at Reserve Christian.

The Eagles led the Rams 35-22 at halftime, but a 34-to-14 Eagle scoring advantage in the third quarter removed all hope for a WSJ rally.

“Reserve Christian’s got a loaded team,” said West St. John Coach Antoine Edwards. “They’ve got some great personnel, starting with Chris Roussell and Cedric Jenkins. And they play so well together.”

Alton Joseph led West St. John (5-4) with 20 points, but some early foul trouble limited the minutes of the Rams’ big man, as it did those of teammate Donald Brown.

“Our bench isn’t there yet,” said Edwards. “And we’re still not shooting it well from the outside. We were able to stay pretty close in the first half, but then they just blew it open.”

Five Eagles (23-3) scored in double figures. Roussell led Reserve with 23 points. Jenkins scored 22. Louis Dabney added 14, and Derek Taylor and Donald Thomas chipped in 10 each.

Dray Joseph scored eight for WSJ. Former Eagle Kaliff Gastreal added six.

Edwards says that while the Rams’ inside game continues to be strong, the outside game will have to augment that for the lane to stay open for his big men.

“We work on it every day at practice,” Edwards said. “We’re going to need help from the outside to give our inside guys some room to work with.”

RAMS TAKE THIRD PLACE AT ST. JAMES — After an opening round loss to Donaldsonville, West St. John captured victories over Jehovah-Jireh and Livonia to finish third at the St. James tournament this past weekend.

On Friday night, the Rams jumped ahead of Jehovah-Jireh 29-11 in the first half, and were able to hold on for a 59-40 victory to set up a third place game with Livonia.

Alton Joseph scored 15 to lead the Rams. Dray Joseph added 14.

In the third place game, Dray Joseph led all Ram scorers with 17 points as West St. John edged Livonia 55-52.

Alton Joseph scored 15 for WSJ.

The Rams led by 10 at halftime, and maintained a double digit lead into the fourth quarter. At that point, Livonia made a run to cut the Ram lead to three.

“I thought we lost our intensity,” said Edwards.

But the Rams picked their defensive effort back up, and Livonia could get no closer.

Dray Joseph was named to the St. James All-Tournament team.

“He played well,” said Edwards. “He made a few costly turnovers here and there. But when we needed a basket, he came up in a big way. He was there when we needed him.”