By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

Still trying to round into basketball form, West St. John dropped a pair of games to local rivals this week.

The Rams fell Thursday at the St. James tournament to St. James 61-40, two days after dropping a close contest at Lutcher, 53-50.

Turnovers and missed opportunities plagued the Rams in each game, says WSJ coach Antoine Edwards.

“Teams have been pressing us, likely knowing I’ve got guys still getting into basketball mode from football,” said Edwards. “We’re not playing to our full potential yet. We’ve got to be able to maintain our composure in these games and so far we haven’t done that.”

The Rams built leads in each game, but couldn’t protect them in the second half.

Against Lutcher, WSJ (2-6) led by seven in the fourth quarter before the Bulldogs turned up the defensive pressure and forced their way into the lead for good.

“Missed free throws, giving the ball away, those things hurt us,” said Edwards. “They got into the lead, and we had to go to our man to man defense. They were able to use their speed to get it up the floor on us.”

Denzel Pierre and Dray Joseph each scored 10 to lead WSJ.

The Rams had a hot start at St. James, outscoring the Wildcats 20-10 in the second quarter to take a 29-20 lead into halftime.

But the third quarter proved disastrous for the Rams, as SJH outscored WSJ 19-4 in the third period, then followed that up with a 13-8 advantage in the fourth to pull out the win.

“We did some good things, and I thought we played pretty well overall,” said Edwards. “We got a little impatient in the second half though. Again, we’ve got to keep composure when a team’s making a run at us. Once we do that and start to play more aggressively on defense, we’ll be okay.”

Pierre led WSJ with 13, while Jalen Adams scored 11.