By RYAN ARENA
Sports Editor

The crowd attending Tuesday night’s District 6-5A opener between East St. John and Hahnville fell deathly silent.

The Wildcats’ three-time All-State point guard Mechel’le Thomas had just crashed to the floor in the game’s first minute. Thomas stayed down, in obvious pain, before limping to the bench.

Not shockingly, it would be the game’s turning point. The surprise of it all, though, was that things swung in the Wildcats favor.

Three minutes later Thomas would walk it off and return to be effective. But in her temporary absence, teammate Ciara Augillard took the offensive load on her shoulders. She kept it going to score a game-high 22 points, and East St. John captured a 60-51 win over the Tigers in Reserve.

“We were nervous when it happened,” said Augillard. “But you can’t just stop. You’ve gotta keep going, even when your point guard gets hurt. Everyone has to pitch in.”

After East St. John’s home loss to Chapelle last Friday night – a game in which Thomas scored 33 points, but no other Wildcat scored more than five — ESJ Coach Troy Giordano said that if his team was to have success going forward, someone would need to step up to compliment his star point guard.

Augillard scored two points against the Chipmunks. On Tuesday, she took his words to heart.

“(Augillard) started attacking, and she gained confidence early on,” said Giordano. “She had a good start, and parlayed it into a big game. She’s a great athlete, but she’s only a sophomore. Its just a matter of her believing in herself.”

She scored seven of her team’s 13 points in the first quarter, and ESJ (19-8, 1-0) led 13-8. In the second quarter, the Wildcats doubled their lead to 27-17, as Augillard and Thomas combined to score all 14 ESJ points.

But while offense has come and gone for ESJ, the Ladycats pressure defense has been ferocious all season. It was white hot in the third quarter. A flurry of steals and fast break opportunities powered a 14-4 run to begin the second half, and an inexperienced Hahnville team had no answers. A Halle Lennix 3-pointer at the 7:25 mark of the third began the run, and a steal and layup by Korielle Tucker capped it off to leave ESJ with a 41-21 lead.

“We controlled the pace and the tempo,” said Giordano. “We mixed it up on defense. Hahnville’s got a real talented team, but they’re young.”

Hahnville (11-12, 0-1) trailed by 16 entering the fourth quarter, but weren’t ready to accept a losing fate. The Tigers cut the ESJ lead to single digits behind 14 fourth quarter points from point guard Kaelyn Boyd, and her two foul shots left ESJ with only a 48-41 lead with 53 seconds remaining. Those, however, were Hahnville’s final points.

Boyd finished with 21. Teammate Jasmine Hill added 14.

Thomas shook off her injury to score 17 points. Phallon Schnyder added eight for the Wildcats.

But Tuesday was Augillard’s night. Her play bodes well for an East St. John team ready to continue on with a brutal district schedule.

“She gave us exactly what we’ve needed,” Giordano said. “She was big tonight.”