By RYAN ARENA
Sports Editor

After his team’s 81-64 victory over East St. John on Friday night, Reserve Christian junior Ed Gallina said that he’s just starting to feel more comfortable with the American style of basketball- — Gallina, you see, was raised in Brazil.

If he’s just now learning the game, future Eagle opponents are in for quite a rude awakening.

Gallina scored a game-high 27 points as Reserve won its sixth straight game, besting the Wildcats at RCS.

“I’m starting to understand more and more as we go along,” said Gallina. “I think we’re all starting to learn how to play together at this point.”

Said Reserve Coach Timmy Byrd: “Ed kind of carried us tonight. He played a great game. It’s good to have guys like him who can step up when some of our other starters don’t have great nights.”

Chris Roussell added 20 points for Reserve (28-4). Louis Dabney chipped in 10.

Malcom Lago led the way for East St. John (10-12) with 21 points. Kaylon Placide scored 14, and LeBaron Sylvester scored nine.

It was the final game for the Wildcats before District 6-5A play begins next Tuesday. ESJ will host St. Amant.

For most of the first half, the two teams played hot potato with the lead – there were 11 lead changes as neither team could establish a clear advantage.

But Reserve changed that with a quick 5-0 run to end the half that broke a tie and gave the Eagles a 32-27 halftime lead.

That run extended into the second half. Gallina and Dabney scored the first four points of the half before ESJ’s Kalen Henderson made a bucket to stop what was a 9-0 RCS run.

Without injured center Ricardo Gathers, RCS compensated by denying the ball inside and forcing a number of Wildcat turnovers. And as the game went on, the Eagles own early turnover issues dried up.

“We played under control in the second half,” said Gallina. “We calmed down and stopped turning the ball over. I think that was the key.”

Reserve led 40-31 midway through the third quarter before blowing the game wide open. Gallina made a basket, then Donald Thomas made a 3-pointer. Derek Taylor scored to make it 47-32, but Lago and Placide combined for a quick 6-0 ESJ run to cut it to single digits again.

The Wildcats would fall behind by 13, but make one final big push to start the fourth quarter – a Placide 3-pointer capped a 9-2 Wildcats run that made it 55-49.

That was their last gasp. Roussell scored 9 of the next 11 points for RCS and powered his team on a 9-2 run of their own. It put RCS ahead 64-51. The Wildcats would get no closer than 12 the rest of the way.

“We weren’t sharp. The starters hadn’t played since the St. Thomas Aquinas tournament, and you could tell. The good thing is that we were still able to find a way to win against a really talented East St. John team.”