Rams win 33rd in a row at home, advance

Published 11:45 pm Friday, February 20, 2015

By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

EDGARD — Third-seeded West St. John’s first round Class 1A playoff game came at home Thursday, where the Rams hadn’t lost in 32 games.

Make that 33.

Jaquanna Hunter scored 14 points to lead four Rams in double figures as West St. John toppled No. 30 Ascension Christian, 58-35.

JuJuan Nicholas and Maya Trench each scored 11, and Lakendra Lewis scored 10 for WSJ (25-5).

West St. John advances to the regional round, where it will host No. 14 seeded Grand Lake at 7 p.m. Monday.

The Rams led 9-6 after the first quarter and 24-18 at halftime, but charged forward after that, scoring 34 second half points to put things away.

“We had a slow start,” West St. John coach Lester Smith said.

“After a nine-day layoff, we were a little sluggish and it led to some foul trouble early. We made some adjustments and did a better job starting in the third quarter.”

It was the Rams’ 10th win in their past 11 games, and their third over Ascension Christian, a District 9-1A opponent, this season. WSJ won its previous two matchups with ACHS 54-29 and 57-34.

Lewis’ return from injury has bolstered the Ram rotation, Smith said, giving his team another perimeter scorer and making it that much harder for teams to focus on limiting perennial backcourt stars Trench and Nicholas.

“She takes pressure off of Maya and JuJuan,” Smith said. “It gives us balance. Teams can’t come out and just play a box-and-one to take someone away, because we’ve got multiple people to take advantage of it.”

The Rams’ are 10-0 at home this season, with seven of those wins coming by double figures.

Smith said his team responds to their fans with its play at home.

“They feed off the energy,” he said. “We’ve got a good fanbase, and it brings the best out of them. It pushes them to another level.”