By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

NEW ORLEANS — West St. John traded blows with Booker T. Washington — a strong out of state foe from Tennessee — for most of Monday’s first half of play in the opening round of the St. Mary’s girls basketball tournament.

But with two minutes left in the first half, the Lady Rams showed just how explosive they can be. West St. John outscored the Lady Warriors 10-0 in that stretch to take a 37-24 lead into the half, en route to a 74-55 victory that extended West St. John’s unbeaten streak to 13 this season.

“We’re playing great defense, playing as a team,” said the Rams’ Jaylyn Gordon, who scored 17. “We’ve got a lot of players stepping up for us this year, a good four to five people scoring every game.”

The Rams advanced to face Warren Easton in the second round. That game was scheduled to be played Tuesday, after press time.

West St. John’s Maya Trench scored 21 to lead all scorers. Donasia Bell scored 15, with over half of those points coming in the fourth quarter, as the Rams closed out the Warriors. Jujuan Nicholas scored 10.

Renisha Hale scored 20 to lead Booker T. Washington. Tierney Keaton scored 15 and Niesha Thomas scored 10.

West St. John (13-0) led by as many as 22 points, building that lead on the back of its defensive pressure and transition game.

“We made too many unforced errors,” said Warriors coach Derek Hunter, who has not lost often in his 25-year stint at Booker T. Washington – he had a career record of 700-249 at the beginning of the month. “(West St. John) is a very good team, but we needed to take care of the ball better than we did.”

Booker T. Washington went 23-3 a season ago in Tennessee and boasts a 7-2 record this season.

The Rams led 19-14 at the end of the first quarter, but Washington kept things close by pounding the ball inside primarily to Hale and Deneisha Lane, who dropped in a steady stream of points in the paint and at the foul line. The Rams led 25-16 when Keaton scored a bucket, followed by two Hale free throws and a bucket by Lane. Trench found Jaquania Hunter for a layup underneath to push the lead to 27-22, but Lane answered with a layup at the other end.

It was Washington’s last basket of the half, though. Trench hit a putback to make it 29-24. Gordon hit two free throws, then blocked a shot that ignited a fast break — Trench capped it with a layup to make it 33-24. Then Trench hit a runner, and Harley Morris blocked a shot to deny another Washington scoring opportunity.

“We really started playing defense at the end of the half,” said Gordon. “We kept it out of the post and they had to shoot.”

Said West St. John coach Lester Smith, “We locked down on the post and took (Hale) out of the game. When we did that, we started to control things.”

With time winding down in the half, Gordon let the clock run down before driving and dishing to an open Morris, who converted a layup to make it 37-24 at the half.

The 3-point shot wasn’t falling in that second quarter for West St. John, but it began to in the third, putting things out of reach. Gordon canned one to begin the second half, making it 40-24. The Warriors scored four straight, but Trench and Gordon sank consecutive 3’s from opposite wings. A Trench put back made it 48-32; another Trench score off of her offensive rebound capped a 6-0 run that made it 54-34. Hale converted a 3-point play and Rakesha Curry hit a 3 from the wing to draw Washington within 14, but another Trench putback and a Nicholas layup  bumped it back to 18.

Despite often being the smallest player on the court, Trench was a plus on the offensive glass all night.

“She’s got an eye for the ball,” said Smith. “Some players just have that knack for it, and Maya’s one of them.”

Bell hit a pair of 3’s, one from each corner, to begin the fourth quarter. Washington drew no closer than 13 the rest of the way.

“We’re getting to where we want to be as a team,” said Smith. “We’ve been playing like a pretty good one, and it’s been getting better every game.”