By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

West St. John secured a much needed victory on Tuesday night as the Rams toppled District 9-1A foe East Iberville 58-41 in Edgard.

The win keeps West St. John (7-5, 1-2) from digging itself too deep of a hole in district play, keeping hopes of a first place finish alive.

“We said before we went out to play that it was an important game,” said West St. John Coach Lester Smith. “If you fall to 0-3, you’re basically fighting for second or third place. We needed to pull out a win here.”

Jailyn Gordon led West St. John with 19 points. Shantell Pablo added 16. Kyla Morris dropped in 12.

Claudia Tasker led East Iberville (6-10, 0-2) with 23 points.

The Rams dominated the majority of the game — a five point lead after a quarter ballooned to 17 at halftime and 26 entering the fourth quarter.

“We were able to pound it inside on them,” said Smith. “We hit a couple of threes early, got a few turnovers and got back to basics.”

Smith said that the foul trouble that has plagued his starters in the past two weeks wasn’t an issue on Tuesday.

“We stayed out of trouble there,” he said. “We stayed in our base zone defense. (East Iberville) had some trouble scoring from outside, so they tried to go inside and we were able to turn them over.”

ASCENSION CATHOLIC 65, WEST ST. JOHN 47 — Ascension Catholic turned a one point halftime lead into a second half blowout as the Bulldogs sent West St. John to a second straight district loss last Friday at Ascension Catholic.

Gordon led West St. John with 20. Morris scored 11.

Alayna Falcon scored 14 to pace ACHS (11-6, 2-0).

The Bulldogs outscored the Rams 37-20 in the second half.

“We missed easy shots and turned it over,” said Smith. “Our offense bogged down in the third quarter. We got within five in the fourth, but then they kind of ran away from us.”