By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

SAINT GABRIEL — West St. John made short work of its first district foe of the season Tuesday night, riding a big second quarter en route to a 67-35 rout of host East Iberville.

The Rams’ Jaylyn Gordon scored 24 points to lead all scorers. Maya Trench scored 15. Donasia Bell scored 11.

WSJ (17-1, 1-0) outscored East Iberville 24-7 in the third quarter to take a 37-19 halftime lead. A 16-6 Rams’ advantage in the third quarter put things away.

Jasmine Mosby led East Iberville (9-12, 0-1) with 15. La’Jaycia Mills added 10.

East Iberville was without top post player Kaitlyn Knight, who will likely be out until the second round of district play.

“That obviously hurt them, being without her,” said West St. John coach Lester Smith. “They present some different problems when she’s in their lineup.”

But on Tuesday, the Tigers had no answers for West St. John’s press. Few have this season.

“That’s something we like to pull out to give us a spark,” said Smith. “Usually around the second quarter, as a change-up. It gets them out of rhythm usually and tends to make teams play that up-tempo game with us.”

Smith said it was a definite pace-changer in this win.

“They were slowing it down in the first quarter,” said Smith, alluding to the opening frame that ended with East Iberville leading 12-11. “We opened things up after that.”

West St. John is now ranked second in Class 1A in power points, just behind leader Vermilion Catholic.