By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

RESERVE – It took a little while for East St. John to get acclimated to its new digs on Monday night, as it hosted Shaw in the Wildcats’ home basketball opener at the Leon Godcheaux Jr. High Gym. Took about a half, in fact.

But once the Wildcats took the floor for the third quarter, they clearly felt right at home. East St. John trailed by one at halftime but surged past the Eagles for a 79-62 victory in front of their home fans.

East St. John’s home gym flooded during Hurricane Issac and will not be of use at any point this season. The team is playing its home games at Godcheaux, where the gym has been revamped into a Wildcat’s den, ESJ’s black and gold everywhere to be seen.

“It’s new,” said Wildcats forward Edwin Winston, whose big second half contributed to his 19 point night. “It feels little weird playing here. But we still get to play in front of our fans and faculty. We’re gonna make it our home.”

Tre’Von Jasmine scored 19 points to lead East St. John (5-2). Elex Carter scored 15. Kyle Patterson added nine.

Tyler Jackson scored 22 to lead Shaw (2-5). Malik Henderson scored 17 and Secdrick Cooper scored nine.

Shaw led for much of the first half, making good from the 3-point arc and in transition. But with the Eagles ahead 20-14, things began to shift in the Wildcats’ favor, starting with a scoring surge from Jasmine – he sank a pair of 3-pointers and a jumper on consecutive possessions, Patterson assisting on two of those to propel ESJ to a 22-20 lead.

“We started kinda slow in the first quarter. I missed a few shots … in the second quarter, I felt like the team needed me to step it up,” said Tre’Von Jasmine.

Shaw led 26-25 at halftime, but Winston got off to a fast start in the second half. He scored eight of ESJ’s first 10 points in the third quarter, all in the lane.

A pair of 3-pointers from the top of the key by Jackson kept Shaw in the lead, which the Eagles held onto until a pair of Carter free throws pushed ESJ ahead, 37-36. The Wildcats wouldn’t trail again. Carter scored twice inside and Winston sank two free throws to make it 41-36. A Carter layup made it 43-37. Aaron Ridley scored on a putback to make it 43-38. ESJ kept attacking and getting to the line, pushing its lead to 10 at one point in the third; a Jackson layup cut it to eight, but Winston answered with a putback. ESJ led 52-45 at the end of the third.

Carter and Winston scored 22 of ESJ’s 27 third quarter points.

“We made that a point at halftime. I told them, ‘Elex and Edwin haveto touch the ball. Don’t shoot unless they get a touch,'” said ESJ coach Yussef Jasmine. “We needed to get the ball inside. I thought we relied too much on the jumper in the first half.”

ESJ pulled away from there. Another Winston score inside made it 54-45. Jasmine made a steal then a layup  to make it an 11-point lead; he stretched it to 13 on an open layup that came off of a perfect outlet pass from Carter, and his offensive board and putback pushed it to 65-51.

“Their transition game got going in the second half and really took us out of what we wanted to do,” said Shaw coach John Quilter.

The crowd got most involved, though, on the run that ultimately slammed the door. Kendall Jackson made a layup, then Winston got the ball out in the open court after a defensive stop; his one-handed slam was the first by a player in the new building and brought the fans to their feet. They’d get up again after an emphatic Carter block.

“We’re a fast break team. That’s what we like to do and in the second half, that’s what we got back to,” said Winston. “(Shaw) has some good guys inside, but we felt like we had to win that battle. As the game went on, I thought we got the ball inside and did that.”

Until Raekwon McKnight’s 3-pointer with less than a minute left in the fourth quarter, all of ESJ’s second half points had come on shots in the lane or free throws.

Yussef Jasmine said that he thought there might have been some jitters within his players on their first night playing in front of the home crowd, but that they did a good job pushing through.

“I thought there were some butterflies. Guys were a little reluctant,” he said. “Our guards were tending to take the first shot available. But in the second half, we did an exceptional job of getting in the paint and working inside out.”쇓