By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

EDGARD — West St. John had things going its way early on against White Castle Tuesday night.

But once the Bulldogs got a spark, they showed the explosiveness they’ve displayed throughout the season, capturing a 60-43 victory over the host Rams in a District 9-1A game.

The victory was White Castle’s 12th in 13 games and it wrapped up at least a district runner-up finish for the Bulldogs.

White Castle forced 22 WSJ turnovers.

For West St. John, the loss dropped West St. John to No. 29 in the Class 1A power rankings according to KenRamsey.com. The Rams had games with Lutcher and Ascension Catholic scheduled to conclude the season; wins in each would likely sew up a postseason berth.

White Castle forward DeAndre Bellock was the catalyst offensively for White Castle, scoring a game-high 25 points.

Morell Bartholomew scored 13 points to lead West St. John. Jordan Hamilton scored 11 and Tim Nelson added eight.

“We came out tonight expecting to win,” said West St. John coach LaVanta Davis. “White Castle has a strong program with tradition. We’ve just got to get better. We’re learning how to win at this stage.”

White Castle (15-9, 8-1) had scored 88 points or more in each of its last three games and in five of its last seven, but the Rams defense slowed the White Castle attack to a crawl early in Tuesday’s game as the Rams (7-11, 5-4) took an 8-6 lead into the second quarter.

Quan Scott found Morell Bartholomew for a layup early in the second quarter to make it 10-6. White Castle fired off a few quick points and took an 11-10 lead on a Tyidous Lang 3-pointer, but Nelson canned a 3 for West St. John to put the Rams back ahead.

But with Hamilton, the Rams’ starting point guard, in foul trouble, turnovers began to mount for West St. John.

A string of three came in a span of 42 seconds and led to a 3-point play by Moses Young and a basket by Bellock that made it 17-13 in White Castle’s favor.

“We started out playing well on defense, but we were stuck at 10 on offense for awhile,” said Hamilton. “I got into foul trouble, and I take part of the blame for that (stretch). From there, we were forcing it.”

A Brandon Matthews layup off a pass from Nelson broke a  West St. John’s field goal drought, but White Castle ended the half of a 5-0 run to make it 28-16 at halftime.

West St. John cut the deficit to 32-24 after 3’s by Hamilton and Nelson. But Bellock stunted the Rams’ momentum with a 3-point play, then slashed through the lane for a layup with 55 seconds left in the third quarter; that made it 39-24.

West. St. John fought back in the fourth quarter. Hamilton canned a 3 from the corner and Matthews made a layup off a broken press to cap a 12-4 WSJ run that made it 49-41 with just over two minutes left. But WSJ could draw no closer.

The Rams turned it over 22 times in the game, many in the face of the Bulldogs’ full-court press.

“We’re disciplined in spurts,” said Davis. “We’re building continuity, but that takes time.”