By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

DESTREHAN – East St. John couldn’t have asked for a better start to district play.

The Wildcats piled up impressive wins over St. Amant and East Ascension last week. And on Tuesday, East St. John took over sole possession of first place in District 6-5A in scintillating fashion, surviving a late rally and downing rival Destrehan in their gym, 50-48.

“I’m glad we came out with the win,” said East St. John coach Yussef Jasmine. “Our execution at the end wasn’t the best and we gave them a little life when we shouldn’t have. But the bottom line is we came out with the win in a tough environment, on the road here against one of our big rivals … when we play on the road against Destrehan and Hahnville, it’s always a crazy atmosphere. The challenge is to get your kids to block that out.”

After Joseph Williams converted a layup off of a steal for East St. John, Destrehan trailed by nine with a minute left. But DHS scored a pair of quick baskets, first by B.J. Singleton then by Davanta Jenkins off of a steal to make it 50-45.

With 13.1 seconds left, Kevin Smith canned a 3-pointer to cut the lead to two. Destrehan then stole the ball yet again and Jenkins had a shot to tie the game, but his long 3-point jumper bounced off the rim to seal a victory for ESJ.

After a low-scoring defensive slugfest in the first half, the teams traded blows evenly throughout the third quarter. East St. John (12-12, 3-0) extended a lead to five, 28-23, at one point after a 3-pointer by Williams and a bucket by Chester Victor, Jr.

Destrehan (15-9, 2-1) rallied with a quick 8-3 run as Nick Knight and Jenkins each hit 3-pointers, the latter tying things up at 31.

But East St. John made perhaps their most important push of the night in the final 30 seconds of the quarter. A Sean Thomas 3-pointer pushed ESJ ahead 35-38. Then, as time expired in the third, Victor’s 3 from the wing went to make it 38-32.

“This place was loud,” said Williams, taking a breath. “We hit some big 3’s to extend out lead. We just found a way to pull it out.”

“It always helps to have good shooters like that stepping up,” said Jasmine.

East St. John scored quickly in transition to begin the fourth quarter on Williams’ layup, making it 40-32.

Destrehan scored the next six points (four of which by Gary Johnson) to cut their deficit to two, Thomas again canned a big shot, hitting a 3 to push it to five. Then Victor scored, added a free throw later, and Williams scored on an inbounds pass with 2:41 left to put ESJ ahead 48-38.

ESJ led 8-7 after a bruising first quarter and 19-16 at halftime.

Williams led ESJ with 15 points. Thomas scored 13 and Victor scored 10.

For Destrehan, Singleton led the way with 18. Johnson scored 11 and Smith added nine.

“The competition stiffens up once you get into this part of the season. Any time you win in district, it’s real big,” said Jasmine.

Said Williams: “It’s a big win that puts us at number one in the district so far. We just kept pushing all night.”

ESJ was scheduled to play Dutchtown last night and will face Hahnville Tuesday.