BY DAVID FOLSE II

Sports Editor

Behind 30 points from senior Ryan Perrilloux, the East St. John Wildcats defeated Thibodeaux 72-64 Tuesday night, handing the nationally-ranked Tigers their first loss of the season.

In addition to Perrilloux’s 30-point effort, Ricardo Porter added 14 points and point guard Willie Lago had nine for ESJ.

An excited ESJ head coach Charles Julian was pleased with his team’s effort against the Tigers.

“It’s a good win for us,” Julian said. “Our team played hard. We didn’t execute as well as I thought we could execute, but we did enough to win. You can’t take anything away from Thibodeaux, they are a great team. My team just played well enough to win a big game.

“The difference in the game was our hard work. Our determination and refusal to not lose the game helped us come out on top. We refused to give the game up.”

Julian also said his team’s depth was a major factor in the positive outcome.

“Our depth, which is always a factor, was key again against them. I have so many players that one of my biggest problems is getting everybody enough playing time. Some people have six players, I feel like we are 10 deep.

“We want to promote a team concept and everybody contributes and we got that Tuesday night.”

Starting to turn his complete attention to basketball, Julian said Perrilloux is quickly regaining his basketball legs.

“Ryan’s a match-up problem,” Julian said of his senior star. “In my opinion he is probably the best three-sport athlete in the nation. He was able to get inside for some easy baskets and we were able to feed him a lot. We felt like we could go inside against them and we were able to do that.

“He played a great game inside. Jamal Breaux also played a great game inside for us and Ricardo also hit a lot of big shots.”

16-6 on the season and 2-1 in District 6-5A play, ESJ returns to action Jan. 4 when they welcome district foe Destreahan at 5:00 p.m.