By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

GEISMAR – East St. John came one step closer to making school history Tuesday, topping Dutchtown behind a strong fourth quarter effort to move to 9-0 in District 6-5A play.

The Wildcats have officially clinched the outright District 6-5A title, the second outright district title in school history. The first came in 2009.

The Wildcats (19-12, 9-0) entered Friday night’s game at Hahnville (details will be in the next edition) with a chance to become the first boys basketball team in East St. John history to go undefeated in district play.

“That’s been our goal since before the season,” said Wildcats’ coach Yussef Jasmine. “We won the first outright district title (in 2009) and have that banner up there, but we want to make history in a different way and go 10-0.

“(We’ve clinched, but) I never get tired of winning,” he said.

Joseph Williams scored 14 to lead East St. John, including some key baskets down the stretch of a fourth quarter in which ESJ outscored Dutchtown 20-12.

“He made some big, critical shots for us in the fourth quarter,” said Jasmine. “And we made our free throws. We’re getting to a point where teams can’t afford to foul us.”

East St. John started the game playing its typically stout defense, holding the Griffins (7-20, 1-8) to nine first quarter points and taking a 17-9 lead. But by the fourth quarter, Dutchtown had climbed back to tie the game at 45.

But in the fourth quarter, Jasmine said the East St. John defense came through.

“We turned it up,” said Jasmine. “We got into passing lanes, got steals, and we got a lot of easy baskets. We turned our defense into offense and gave them a difficult time.”

Jalen Kenner scored nine and Marcus Robinson and Rashad Green each scored eight for East St. John.

Dutchtown’s Terrance Cushenberry scored 29 to lead all scorers. He made six 3-pointers.