MICHAEL KIRAL / L’Observateur / March 22, 2000

LAFAYETTE – Along with his skills on the football field and basketball court, St. James’ Corey Webster has also shown himself to be a prettygoof predictor of the future as well. As a freshman, Webster told Wildcatshead coach Lionel Ezidore that St. James would win a basketball statetitle before he left school.

The Wildcats made that prediction come true Saturday night, defeating St.

Bernard, 66-65, in the Class 3A championship game in the Cajun Dome.

The title was the first in school history for the Wildcats (23-5) who had made three previous trips to the Top 28 tournament but had lost in the semifinals each time.

“When Corey came to St. James, he said, ‘Coach, we’re going to win a statechampionship before I graduate,'” Ezidore said. “I said you’re a senior now,you’re about out of time.”Webster said his cousin played for St. James the last time the Wildcatsmade the Top 28 in 1987.

“I look up to him and I told him I would do better than he did,” Webster said. “We had a lot of players step up. We had some seniors step up big.We’re always good in basketball but a lot of people didn’t respect us so we had to prove it. We’re not only good in football but we’re good inbasketball too. That’s what we came out to do. Every year we set the goalto be on top. Some years we came up short but this year we completed it.Every year we set our goals high.”Webster was named the Class 3A tournament’s MVP after scoring 16 points to go with nine assists and five rebounds Saturday night. StevensonJones also had 16 points for the Wildcats and grabbed nine rebounds.

Justin Aubert had a game-high 10 rebounds and added 13 points.

“Aubert has been playing good coming off the bench all year long,” Ezidore said. “After the first two or three minutes of the first quarter, I said weneeded Aubert in the game. He was doing such a good job, we don’t needhim out, we need him in.”St. Bernard (32-9) was led by its guards, Drionne Major and TarranceRichard. Richard had a game-high 27 points and was 7-of-14 on 3-pointers. Major added 23 points and hit five of his 11 3-point attempts.Byron Santiago added eight points and seven rebounds.

St. James out-shot St. Bernard, 53.7-47.1 percent, and controlled theinside. The Wildcats grabbed 34 rebounds to the Eagles’ 21. Thirteen of St.James’ rebounds came on the offensive end while St. Bernard could grabonly six offensive boards. The Eagles also got only five rebounds fromtheir front court.

“He (Aubert) stepped up for them, St. Bernard coach Butch Stockton said ofthe Wildcats’ front court. “We knew he was going to be a good player forthem as well as Stevenson. We knew that was a good inside team and wetalked about that. One of the keys to victory was to keep them off theoffensive boards. We just didn’t do a good job in that area. They had 13offensive rebounds. That’s a lot of offensive rebounds. You can’t win abasketball game giving up that many offensive rebounds.”But the game still came down to the final minute. St. Bernard rallied froman 11-point deficit over the final four minutes to take a 65-64 lead on two free throws by Richard with 23.9 seconds left. Webster took the balldowncourt and drove to the left corner before rifling a pass cross-court to Jones on the right baseline. Jones drove in, laying the ball up to give theWildcats a 66-65 lead with 13 seconds left.

St. Bernard inbounded the ball to Major who took the ball downcourt.Joseph Christy cut Major off on the right sideline near midcourt and went down with Major being called for the charge, his fifth foul of the game.

Christy missed both foul shots with the rebound being tipped out of bounds by the Wildcats with 5.9 seconds left.Richard took the inbounds and drove to the right side before kicking the ball back to Lance Brown. Brown drove in around the right side but hisrunning one-hander from the lane bounced off the backboard as the buzzer sounded.

“We’re come of excited because we’re up,” Webster said of what was going through the players’ minds in the final minutes. “We didn’t want tomake any mistakes but I guess that’s why a couple of mistakes happened at the end. We’re almost got the championship but we started getting alittle jittery at the end. We knew they would come back and make a run.That’s what we talked about in the lockerroom. We had to stop the run tocome out ahead and that’s what we did.”Jones scored off a Webster pass to give the Wildcats a 51-41 lead at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Three-pointers by Major and Richard cutthe deficit to seven with 5:51 left but Aubert answered by converting a three-point play on a put back. A free throw by Christy a possession latermade it 58-47 with 4:11 left in the game.

The Eagles then began a furious rally behind the outside shooting of Major and Richard. Two 3-pointers by Major cut the deficit to 58-53 with 3:02left. Aubert tipped in a miss by Webster to increase the lead to seven butMajor came back with another 3-pointer from the left side to make it 61- 58 with 1:52 left.

Claudell Parker scored off a pass from Christy to give the Wildcats a five- point cushion with 1:25 left. But Major answered with a drive and Richardburied a 3-pointer from the top of the key to bring the Eagles to within 64-63 with 40 seconds left. The Wildcats then turned the ball over andRichard went to the free throw line after being fouled at midcourt by Webster on the Eagles’ next possession.

“We dug ourselves a hole,” Stockton said. “I thought we would come backespecially with the shooting of these two guys (Major and Richard). Theynever gave up and they showed everyone what kind of backcourt they were.

I’ll put the basketball in these guys hands any night, anytime.

“We played defense and got the rebound down by one. We got the ball inTarrance’s hands at the end of the game. They doubled him up which is agood play on their part and we kicked it out. We just came one point shortout there.”St. Bernard shot 57.7 percent in the first half but trailed 32-28 athalftime. The Eagles tied the game at 34 with 6:07 left in the thirdquarter behind two 3-pointers by Richard.

St. James responded with a 9-0 run to take a 43-34 lead. Parker scoredinside off a pass from Christy to open the run and Webster followed with a 3-pointer from the left wing. Aubert drove in from the left for a layup andJones scored on a put back to give the Wildcats a nine-point lead with 3:09 left in the quarter.

Richard buried a 3-pointer from the top of the key to cut the deficit to four but two drives by Jones and a tap in by Webster gave the Wildcats a 49-41 lead at the end of the third quarter.

St. James jumped out to a 5-2 lead on a jumper by Webster. St. Bernardcame back to take a 13-7 lead behind two 3-pointers by Richard. Layups byChristy and Webster tied the game at 15 going into the second quarter.

Henry Washington put the Wildcats up 20-16 on a jumper from the left wing with 6:44 left in the half. A three-point play by Major and a jumperby Santiago regained the lead for the Eagles at 25-22.

Jumpers by Aubert and Jones put the Wildcats back ahead at 26-22 with 2:41 left. Aubert then scored on a put back and a pass from Christy to givethe Wildcats a 32-28 halftime lead.

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