MICHAEL KIRAL

St. James rallies past Minden, moves to finals

PHOTO: ST. JAMES’ DERRICK JONES drives around Minden’s Kawarski Harris in the first half Monday night. St. James defeated Minden, 74-73, to advance to its second straight Class 3A championship game. (Staff Photo by Michael Kiral) LAFAYETTE – St. James familiar playoff run appeared a bit too familiar Monday night against Minden in the Class 3A semifinals. The Wildcats trailed by eight in the final four minutes to the Crimson Tide in the semifinals last season and fell behind by 14 in the first half Monday night. But like last year, St. James rallied in the second half to pull out a 74-73 victory. St. James (21-6) advances to its second straight state championship game Friday night against Rayville. Rayville (31-6) defeated Landry, 55-53, in the second game Monday. Tip-off for the finals is scheduled to begin at approximately 8:30 p.m. Minden finished its season at 35-7. St. James led 57-53 going into the fourth quarter and took a 64-58 lead on a three-point play by Henry Washington with 4:19 left. Drives by Stevenson Jones and Washington made it 69-58 with 2:50 left. Lavonte Price brought Minden to within 69-63 with a 3-pointer from the right side with 1:42 remaining. St. James answered with a dunk and three free throws by Washington to increase the lead back to 74-65 with 1:12 left. Minden still refused to go down as Dexter Shyne hit the first of two free throws. Price put back the second one, cutting the deficit to six. Following a steal by Jeremy Reamer, Shyne buried a 3-pointer from the right corner, making it 74-71 with 41 seconds left. Justin Aubert missed two free throws with 29.7 seconds left. Shyne picked up a loose ball after a missed 3-pointer by Price and scored on a dunk, making it a one-point game with 4.6 seconds left. Erron Hickerson was fouled on the inbounds and after missing the first free throw, intentionally bounced the second off the backboard. Minden rebounded the shot but could not get a shot off before the buzzer. Washington scored a game-high 22 points for St. James to go with seven assists. Stevenson Jones had 16 points and five rebound. Derrick Jones had a team-high eight rebounds to go with 12 points. Aubert had 11 points and LeVar Joseph 10. Reamer led Minden with 20 points. Price had 15 points to go with 10 rebounds. Antonio Coleman added 14 points and Shyne 11. Kawarski Harris just missed a triple-double, grabbing a game-high 12 rebounds and dishing out 10 assists to go with nine points. Despite the late-game drama, the game may really have been decided in the final seconds of the first half. St. James trailed by six when Hickerson banked in a 3-pointer from the top of the key with 14 seconds left. Shyne followed with a drive for Minden and was fouled by missed the free throw. Washington got the ball and put up a one-handed heave from the right sidelines at midcourt that banked in at the buzzer, pulling the Wildcats to within 37-35 at the half. “I just threw it up and went in,” Washington said. Minden coach Alan Shaw said that was the point of the game in which the momentum changed. “The momentum changer of the game was those two banked 3’s at the end of the half,” Shaw said. “We went from up from up eight or nine to up two in a matter of seconds.” The third quarter would be a dueling banjo affair with both teams trading baskets. There would be eight ties and no lead bigger than two until the final two minutes. St. James shot 58.8 percent in the quarter and Minden 58.3 percent. Reamer scored 10 straight points to keep his team in the game until picking up his fourth foul on a drive and layup by Aubert with 1:47 left. That layup by Aubert would give the Wildcats the lead for good. Aubert hit the ensuing free throw to make it 54-51. Washington followed with a drive off a rebound by Derrick Jones to make it a five-point game. After a drive by Price, Jones hit one of two free throws to make it 57-53 going into the fourth quarter. The first half was one of two entirely different quarters. Minden scored 12 unanswered points after St. James scored the opening basket of the game, taking a 12-2 lead on a 3-pointer by Coleman. A jumper by Stevenson Jones pulled St. James to within 18-10 but Minden answered with a drive by Reamer and a put back jumper by Harris to take a 14-point lead. A drive by Washington made it 24-12 at the end of the quarter. Minden shot 64.3 percent from the field, including 2-of-3 on 3-pointers, and made all four of free throws. “I thought we came out really aggressive and got ball out in the open court which is what we do best,” Shaw said. “But I thought once we got the lead we started relaxing a little bit. Instead of continuing to put pressure on them and playing with that same kind of intensity we backed off a little bit especially on the defensive end.” A put back by Price gave Minden a 26-12 lead on the first possession of the second quarter. St. James then started its comeback with a 3-pointer from the right wing by Aubert. A drive by Stevenson Jones and a 3-pointer from the right wing by Washington made it a 26-20 game with 5:49 left. Minden got the lead back to 31-21 behind a drive by Reamer and a free throw by Coleman with 2:29 left. St. James again came back as Aubert spun in for a layup and LeVar Joseph hit two free throws. A drive by Derrick Jones off a steal by Washington made it 31-27 with 1:38 left. “We knew it was going to be a tough game,” St. James head coach Lionel Ezidore said. “We came out in the first quarter and didn’t play real well. But I thought as the game progressed we started playing St. James basketball. I thought one of the key plays was when we hit that halfcourt 3-pointer. That was a momentum builder.”