By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

PLAQUEMINE – West St. John made short work of St. John-Plaquemine Tuesday night, toppling the Eagles, 42-26.

The Rams led 30-17 at halftime.

“We played better defense than we’ve been playing, and we got them to turn the ball over,” said West St. John coach Antoine Edwards. “We did a good job of jumping on them.”

Denzel Pierre led the Rams with 10 points and Jalen Adams added nine.

The third quarter offered an oddity of a statistic – neither team scored a basket. The Rams, leading by 13, tried to make St. John come out of their zone and defend out on the perimeter. But the Eagles wouldn’t bite, leading to a stalemate.

“Our perimeter shooting was out of sync, and we felt like we had a bit of a quickness advantage,” said West St. John coach Antoine Edwards. “They failed to come out of that zone and it resulted in no scoring. In the fourth, we opened it back up.”

The Rams outscored the Eagles 12-9 in the fourth quarter to seal the victory.

It was a positive move for the Rams, who had come off of a 58-30 loss the previous Friday night to White Castle in Edgard.

West St. John (8-16, 5-4) needs a strong finish if it is to contend for a playoff berth. The road is tough, however, with last night’s result with sixth-ranked Christian Life still pending and a regular season-ending tilt with fifth-ranked East Iberville still on the agenda.

“We need to get two wins this week,” said Edwards. “We’ll keep an eye on the district race as all these teams play one another.”