By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

Upon taking over as St. James head girls’ basketball coach, Justin Adams made a bold statement to his Wildcat players.

“I promised them,” he said, “that we’d win the state championship.”

Saturday night’s events proved Adams an honest man.

As the time ticked down to zero in St. James’ 61-49 Class 3A championship win over Avoyelles, Adams looked to the heavens with tears in his eyes and repeated, “Thank you. Thank you.”

He knew his Wildcats had been at the doorstep of the Top 28 several times before under former coach Amy Blanchard.

They weren’t the only ones. Adams brought Ponchatoula to the Top 28 tournament in Class 5A twice before at his previous coaching stop.

“Both times we’d got there and the breaks just never seemed to go our way,” he said.

 It looked like it might be more of the same for Adams Saturday night, when all three of his senior stars were saddled with foul trouble. St. James was in the penalty in the first quarter and Anika Duronslet, Brandi Jeffery and Markeisha Keller all missed long stretches with four fouls.

Adams admitted a thought of “Here we go again” crept in, though he also stated he remained positive.

“The thought definitely crossed my mind,” he said. “This can’t be happening again, right? I don’t think I ever felt that we wouldn’t win, but a lot of thoughts raced through my head at 90 miles per hour that night.

“I just knew going in just how hard it is to win those last two. And you don’t get that many cracks at it.”

Adams preseason proclamation was not one made out of baseless bravado. He had a good idea of the team’s talent level and fully believed them capable.

“I’d never really coached athletes (on my teams) before,” said Adams. “As a whole, this was going to be the most talented team that I had coached. I wanted them to have the confidence and the expectation that it was going to happen by letting them know that I expected it.”

Talented, and a squad that boasted great chemistry with one another. Its three senior starters – Jeffery, Duronslet and Keller – had played together since the seventh grade. Adams said that they bought in quickly and proved that their talk of wanting a championship came from a true desire.

“Those three meant what they said,” he said. “They set the tempo for everyone.”

St. James athletic director Rick Gaille said that when Blanchard moved on, the school spoke with a number of candidates but that Adams’ resume as an experienced playoff coach and ability to teach the game had the appeal St. James was searching for.

Led by Jeffery, the team’s leading scorer and a Nebraska signee, the team’s three seniors were St. James’ cornerstones. But in the championship game, the foul trouble combined with Avoyelles’ defense held each below their usual scoring marks.

“It was a true team effort,” Gaille said. “They just showed what a good team, top to bottom, that they are.”

The team’s press this season was a true nightmare for opponents. At the top 28 tourney, the Wildcats forced a total of 65 turnovers, including 43 steals.

“The way we play, we know that there’s going to come a point where that other team cracks,” he said. “Maybe its over only a span of a minute or two, maybe it’s more. But that’s the time we take our lead to 12, 13, 14 points. And once we do that, we’re able to control the tempo.”

The community noticed their accomplishments. Before the team’s semifinal game against Loyola Prep, which was to tip-off at 2:30 p.m., Adams expected the time to make a dent in his team’s fanbase.

It wasn’t so. Both games were flooded with black and gold attire throughout the arena.

“When we walked out of that tunnel and saw all those people from St. James, it just gives us that much more adrenaline, that much more confidence. It was amazing.

“We had, by far, the best fans at the Top 28.”

And all of them were assembled to watch a coach keep his promise, and a group of players go down in history.