By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

LAPLACE – Though West St. John has had to weather the loss of current Louisiana-Lafayette guard Jaylyn Gordon, the Lady Rams are off to an awfully familiar start to the season.
The Rams are undefeated early on once again, set to enter this weekend’s West Jefferson tournament 6-0 after Tuesday’s dominating 75-10 victory over South Plaquemines.
Maya Trench continued her dominant early play, scoring 21 points. JuJuan Nicholas and Jaquanna Hunter each scored 18, while Sydnei Young scored 10.
Eight Lady Rams in all scored in the game. It became a rout in the first quarter after WSJ went ahead 28-5. WSJ held the Hurricanes (1-2) scoreless in the third quarter.
“We’ve kinda gotten out to the same type of start we did last year,” said WSJ coach Lester Smith. “We’re in position to go into the West Jefferson tournament and potentially match up with Warren Easton while undefeated, which was the case last season.”
Nicholas returned to action last week and helped lift the Rams to the Ellender tournament championship. That run culminated with Nicholas’ game-high 26 points in a championship game win over the host Patriots, 68-65.
“We’re a little more balanced now,” said Smith. “We’ve had to do it that way. Sydnei’s stepped up her game. JuJuan’s scoring a lot in transition. We’re not big enough to play that physical, halfcourt, grind it out game. We’ve got to run and it’s been working for us.”
All six Ram wins have come over competition above Class 1A, where West St. John resides. Four of those have come over 4A or 5A competition. The Lady Rams sport an average victory margin of 28 points a game.
Trench has averaged 22 points per game so far. Nicholas is at 19 and Hunter has chimed in with 12 per game.