By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur
East St. John’s thrilling run this postseason came to an end Tuesday night at the hands of Class 5A top seed Ouachita, which came away with a 64-48 victory at home in a state quarterfinal game.
Troy Green scored 20 points and Elex Carter posted a mammoth 13 blocks to lead the Wildcats. But a 22 point effort by Ouachita point guard Yettra Specks and 14 more from Cameron Sims led the way for the Lions, who moved on to face East Ascension at the Class 5A top 28 tournament.
East St. John (24-8) trailed 48-40 with a little over two minutes left in the game, but Ouachita slammed the door from there.
“We were getting one-and-dones, and they were pushing it in transition,” said East St. John coach Yussef Jasmine. “They go down and make a 3, then we come down and try to answer, go one and done and they’re off the other way. Once we got it to eight, we just couldn’t close the gap. Ouachita did an excellent job rebounding and getting into transition.”
The Wildcats trailed 31-18 at halftime after the Lions (30-4) outscored ESJ 19-11 in the second quarter.
“We were fairly neck and neck in the first quarter,” said Jasmine. “We knew they like to get out and pressure the ball, so we ran some sets to soften up their wings. We got some things going off of backdoor cuts.
“We went through one stretch where we’d execute the play and just not finish. They executed a little better than we did and it made the difference.”
Raekwon McKnight scored 10 points for ESJ, while Tre’Von Jasmine added nine.
Ouachita has now won 19 straight games.
Yussef Jasmine credited his players for the season they put together in spite of losing 10 players from last year’s team to graduation.
He said this group has done a huge part of building the Wildcats into a truly formidable program.
“I feel like our success was a testament to our program. That we can lose 10 seniors and continue to be successful, and not just be a team that’s good for a given year and falls apart the next,” said Jasmine. “It makes me feel like we’ve arrived as a program that’s always going to be a tough out.”
ESJ will return all but three seniors to next season’s team. One of those graduating will be Elex Carter, the team’s 6-foot-7 center who has been the backbone of the team’s defense.
“We’ve had a good defensive team, and he’s been the absolute anchor of that,” said Jasmine. “I haven’t seen another player at this level who can defend like Elex can. He plays with such tenacity. And he’s a vocal leader.
“We’ll miss him. But he’s left an imprint on this program, through the example he’s set in his play and in his character. He’s left that imprint on the players returning, so I feel like he’s going to continue to impact us and contribute to our success in that way.”