By ROBERT L. LEE

DESTREHAN – The Destrehan Fighting Wildcats stopped the East St. John Wildcats in their tracks in a largely defensive battle Tuesday night.

With the bleachers full, crowds lined both sides of the court in Destrehan’s gym, although only cheers for the home team were heard as they walked off the court with a 60-38 win.

Destrehan’s coach Joe Schick said his team would need one full, hard day of practice before facing the Wildcats and Tuesday night it was evident his team was ready.

“When any team has time to prepare they do good,” explained Schick.

“We were ready to execute our game plan and we did very well defensively. We held them to one shot and pulled the rest off the glass. I thought it was a sound, solid defensive game and at the same time, we put 60 points on the board.”

Destrehan’s top scorer, Mark Stewart, had an off night with only 12 points, so Jaszmine Eugene stepped up and dropped in 24 points.

Schick said his players didn’t have a good shooting night, but knows they are not always going to, that’s just when the defense has to make sure the other team also has trouble scoring.

The Fighting Wildcats had eight players on their rotation against East St. John, but Schick said there is little to no drop off in talent from his five starters and the three backups.

“They hit shots and get rebounds and help us wear teams down,” he continued, “especially into the second half because other teams don’t have the subs we have.”

After holding East St. John to seven points in the first quarter and opening a 14-point lead by half time, Schick made sure his team knew they had to keep playing hard and not take the second half for granted.

Schick told his players to beware of the Wildcats’ “two big post guys” who were trying to ease the ball up and into the basket.

Schick said he pushed his team toward those guys when they got the ball, effectively pushing them to take the tougher outside shots.

This also gave the Wildcats more chances to take down the rebounds.

“At the break I told them they were looking good and to keep doing what they’ve been doing, just keep the intensity,” said Schick.

“There have been a couple of games this year we lost intensity in the second half after building the lead.”

He said he told his players to treat the second half as if the score were 0-0 again and if they win the second half, they would obviously win the game.

The third quarter saw Destrehan score another 14 points, while the Wildcats mustered only four, thanks to foul shots toward the end of the quarter.

For the fourth quarter, Schick said he played in junior varsity guys, which helped the Wildcats score 15 points.

“When you’re up 20 points, the other team is still playing the same as they have been, that’s why they got those points,” Schick added.

He said the defense was Destrehan’s catalyst in every form of coverage.

The Fighting Wildcats pressed occasionally for a steal, but relied on man-to-man coverage most of the night.

“Sometimes when you press, you gamble,” he added, “and we didn’t have to press much. It was more of a half court effort.”