By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

EDGARD — White Castle girls basketball coach Tammy Washington-Pierce had tears in her eyes as a sizeable contingent of traveling Bulldogs fans surrounded her, offering congratulations Thursday night. Her senior guard, Shyler O’Bear, said she was living a longtime dream.

Their team is headed to the Top 28 girls basketball tournament next week. And they had to slay a dragon to do it.

White Castle ended West St. John’s school record 34-game home winning streak via a 42-36 Class 1A quarterfinal victory in front of a jam-packed gymnasium.

It ended West St. John’s hopes of reaching the girls Top 28 tournament for the third time in the past four years.

“We haven’t been to the big dance since 2010,” Washington-Pierce said. “We fought all season, all year long. It was no different (Thursday).”

The game had extra emotional value for Washington-Pierce, whose father passed away last summer.

“He was our biggest fan,” she tearfully said. “He came to every game … I think he was with us on this court (Thursday).”

Skylar O’Bear led White Castle (22-11) with 22 points.

Jaquanna Hunter paced the Rams with 17 points.

For West St. John (26-5), it was a heartbreaking loss for multiple reasons. Standout guard Maya Trench was plagued by foul trouble for most of the night, sitting out virtually the entire second quarter and for nearly half of the fourth quarter. West St. John scored just six points with Trench on the bench.

“We lose so much with Maya on the bench,” West St. John coach Lester Smith said. “Both offensively and defensively, she’s a key to a lot of what we do. The (White Castle) twins are tough, and they gave us the type of game we expected.

“We told our girls after the game, if they gave 100 percent (Thursday), they have no reason to hang their head. If they didn’t, then hang your head. I thought each of our girls played really hard, and they’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.”

White Castle led 20-12 early in the third quarter when West St. John, in a flash, seemed to turn the game in its favor. Hunter sank two free throws, then JaJuan Nicholas nailed a corner 3 coming out of a timeout. Trench then grabbed a rebound, accelerated past the defense and passed ahead to Hunter, who laid the ball in to make it 20-19. With 3:08 left in the third, Lakendra Lewis hit a corner 3 to tie the game at 22, and with 2:44 left in the period, Hunter gave WSJ its first lead of the second half by sinking one of two free throws.

The Lady Rams pushed the lead to four headed into the fourth quarter, but Trench picked up her fourth foul just 16 seconds into the final period and headed to the bench. Shylar O’Bear made a layup to cut the WSJ lead to one. Skylar O’Bear put her team back ahead with two free throws.

Nicholas answered with a shot in the lane, then Skylar O’Bear sank a jumper. Nicholas fired back by making a high-arcing floater, and the Lady Rams led 32-31 with 4:12 left, when Trench reentered the game.

But White Castle had regained its footing. Blessing Franklin hit one of the night’s biggest shots, sinking a wing 3 for her first points and giving her Lady Bulldogs a 36-34 lead.

At the other end, the Lady Rams committed an offensive foul.

“Our motto all year has been, ‘finish the fight,’” Washington-Pierce said.

The Bulldogs made the lead four out of a timeout, executing a pretty inbounds play: the ball was thrown in to Shylar O’Bear, who drew the defenses attention near the baseline before she tossed a wrap around pass to an open Falcon, who laid the ball in for two.

“We knew they’d be focused on (the O’Bear twins), and we were stressing to make that extra pass,” Washington-Pierce said.

The Lady Rams were running out of time. WSJ committed a turnover on its next possession with 1:43 left, then a Trench 3 hit back-rim at the 1:05 mark. Skylar O’Bear missed a free throw, and Hunter drew a foul at the other end and sank two free throws to make it a two-point game. Shylar O’Bear went to the line and hit two of her own.

White Castle all but wrapped things up with 32 seconds left, when the Lady Bulldogs drew a charge on a driving Hunter.

In addition to ending the Lady Rams’ home winning streak, the Lady Bulldogs were also the first team in the past five seasons to beat West St. John in district play, winning by one at home earlier this month. West St. John was 11-2 over its final 13 games, the only two losses coming at the hands of the Bulldogs.

“We knew once we beat them the first time, we could do it again,” Shylar O’Bear said. “I’m proud of both teams, us and West St. John. This was a great game.”

WEST ST. JOHN 73, GRAND LAKE 43 — The Rams made short work of their visiting foes Tuesday night in a second round game that was postponed due to weather concerns.

Nicholas scored 21 points to lead West St. John. Trench scored 19, Hunter scored 12 and Lewis 11.

WSJ held Grand Lake to four first quarter points and controlled the action throughout.

“We stressed getting off to a fast start,” Smith said. “It’s important for us because it gets the fans into it, and our kids feed off that.”

Trench said the team was ready to play Monday and had to maintain focus for an extra day.

“We just had to relax and play our game,” Trench said. “We kept our momentum up throughout.”

Added Nicholas, “We had a lot of (fan) support tonight, and that makes it easy.”