By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

WHITE CASTLE – West St. John scored a key victory in its quest to secure the District 8-1A championship on Friday night, defeating host White Castle 53-41 to knock the Bulldogs back into second place.

The two teams had each entered into Friday’s game locked in a three-way tie for first place with North Iberville.

North Iberville and WSJ (15-8, 8-2) continue to be tied for first.

The Rams came out hot on Friday and never looked back. WSJ began the game on a 12-0 run, led 16-5 after the first quarter and 32-17 at halftime. WSJ led by as many as 17 in the first half, and never allowed its lead to dwindle to single digits.

“We jumped out on them and took their crowd out of it,” said West St. John coach Lester Smith. “We forced a couple of turnovers and made some stops early. We hit a 3 at the other end. Things just snowballed.”

Center Kyla Morris was key for the Rams, scoring a game-high 21 points as her team continually fed her inside.

“They didn’t have anyone to matchup with her,” said Smith.

Jaylyn Gordon scored 13 and Ambria Major added eight for the Rams.

Smith said that while Morris produced inside, the Rams were determined to not let White Castle get its inside game revved up.

“We wanted to take it away from them,” said Smith.

“They tried to get it into their big girls and we were able to deny that and get some steals.”

West St. John has one game left, after last night’s home game with St. John (after presstime).

Wins in yesterday’s game and in Friday night’s game at Christian Life would clinch at least a tie for first place with North Iberville for the Rams.