By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

West St. John guard Jaylyn Gordon smiled when asked about the scoring ability of her teammates, after a 58-50 victory over visiting Higgins on Thursday night.

“Everyone’s been scoring,” Gordon said. “Everyone’s pitching in.”

Gordon, the Rams’ leading scorer a year ago, has always been leaned upon heavily to provide scoring punch, and indeed her 23 points were a game-high Thursday. But Gordon had a running mate in fellow guard Maya Trench, who scored 16. JaJuan Nicholas, Donasia Bell, Deja Feist and Harley Morris all got into the scoring column for the Rams (9-4), who shared the ball well and caught fire from the outside. West St. John hit 10 3 pointers in the game.

“They probably shot 70 percent from 3,” said Higgins coach Harlin Miller. “I shook hands with them at the end and those hands were still hot.”

Said Gordon, “(Trench) will have 14, 10 (Nicholas) will have 14, 22 (Bell) will have 14 … We’ve been running more plays this season and everyone is picking up the scoring.”

West St. John (9-4) led 32-26 at halftime but pushed its lead to as many as 13 in the second half.

Higgins began the half with a pair of buckets, but a Nicholas 3 would soon extend West St. John’s lead to 36-30. Higgins was called for a technical and Trench hit one of two free throws, then found Feist open under the basket; Feist drew a foul and hit one of two foul shots to make it 38-30. Brianna Burris scored to cut the lead to six, but Morris hit a free throw and Trench hit a pair of 3’s to make it 45-34.

Burris nailed a 3 to pull the Hurricanes within eight, but Bell converted on a pick and pop jumper to end the quarter and give WSJ a 47-37 lead.

The Rams led 50-37, but Higgins (6-8) made a push as Kenicia Sanders

started to heat up. A Sanders jumper made it 50-41; she then converted a layup and drew a foul on a putback in transition before sinking a free throw to make it 50-44. The teams exchanged buckets, but another putback in transition by Sanders pulled Higgins within four.

“We had a couple of breakdowns defensively and let them back into the game,” said West St. John coach Lester Smith. “But we regrouped.”

West St. John saw a Nicholas 3 attempt come up empty, as did two put back attempts; but the Rams’ defense pressured Higgins into a traveling violation with three minutes to go. Nicholas connected with Feist underneath and Feist converted a layup to push the Rams ahead 54-49.

Higgins turned it over again with 2:21 remaining. Neither team would score again until 32.7 seconds remained, when Higgins’ Breianne Johnson hit a free throw. The Rams still held a four point lead, however, and were able to draw fouls and convert free throws to hold on.

“We picked up our defense,” said Gordon. “When we do that, we get more shots off. And we also stopped rushing things on offense. We stepped back, saw what they were doing, and took our time to get better shots.”

West St. John coach Lester Smith said that he likes what he sees but that the job is hardly done.

The Rams’ rolled from the perimeter, but Smith wants to see the interior game clicking just as well.

“We’re not where we want to be just yet,” he said.

“We’ve got our outside people going, but we need our inside people to get rolling. We’ve got a long way to go, but it was a good win.”

Burris led Higgins with 17 points. Sanders added 15.

The Rams’ program has been ascending, and Thursday’s win was an

indicator of that rise, as West St. John defeated a quality Class 5A

opponent and led throughout.

“We’re doing some good things,” said Smith. “We got a lot of good shots tonight and played pretty well. We just have to build on that and get a

little better so that we can make a run for our district title.”