By ROBERT L. LEE

RESERVE – “There is no question we played better tonight,” said St. James coach Lionel Ezidore comparing the Wildcats’ 74-62 win Friday night to their crushing Thursday night loss to West St. John.

“West St. John played one of their best games all year against us and we made too many mental mistakes,” he continued. “But we learned our lesson and we can’t take anybody for granted.”

The Wildcats snatched the tip off and Desi Steib took it to make the first lay up. Steib then ran down to the Lions side of the court and stole their rebound. The stunned French Settlement team added their first points a minute and a half later. The Wildcats controlled the court offensively and defensively to keep their lead and not allow any easy shots for the Lions. In the first four minutes, the Wildcats had taken almost every Lion rebound and forced their way to a quick 10-2 lead. The St. James team continued its momentum to pull away with a 23-9 rout by the end of the first quarter.

French Settlement used the first two minutes of the second quarter to make a five-point drive of their own, before the Wildcats could answer with two points.

Derrick Jones sparked the Wildcats’ enthusiasm when a Levar Joseph lay up bounced off the back of the rim and he used two hands to slam it back in. The shot provided the slowing Wildcats with the energy they needed to retake control of the game and maintain their 13-point lead.

Continuing their style of repeated slams over their opponents, David Johnson set up the bounce from off the goal and Jones followed up to do the slamming honors again.

The Lions found their rhythm for the game in the second quarter, as they paced themselves and doubled their first quarter tally with another 18 points. A French Settlement basket at the buzzer closed the Wildcats’ lead to 10 points 37-27.

Ezidore explained the surge in the Lions’ points was because he took most of the Wildcats’ starter out of the game for a while in the second quarter because of growing foul trouble. The two teams were almost evenly matched through the second half, but the Wildcats were sure to hold on and make up for Thursday’s loss with a 12-point win.