BY DAVID FOLSE II

Sports Editor

EDGARD-It wasn’t there home gym, but they were still considered their home team.

East St. John fans could care less where they played however, they are just happy that they came away with the victory.

Behind 37 points from all-everything Ryan Perrilloux and 10 points from Ryan Stipe, East St. John defeated John Ehret, 82-75 in overtime Tuesday night at West St. John to advance to the state quarterfinals.

The Wildcats took on Fortier, the district champions of 9-5A last night on the road with a trip to the Top 28 on the line.

Deeper and more athletic than the Patriots, East St. John outscored them 17-6 in the second quarter to build a comfortable lead.

However, that lead soon evaporated and the game was forced into overtime. Behind Perrilloux and Stipe, the Wildcats outscored John Ehret 15-8 in the overtime session to come away with the victory.

An excited Charles Julian said his team is really playing well, particularly his star forward Perrilloux.

“Our team is in quest of the perfect game,” the East St. John Head Coach said. “We played 28 minutes of good basketball Tuesday night. The last four minutes of regulation we kind of lost our focus, but we came away with the win.

“It was an ugly win, but we came away with it. We’ll take it. I guess you need some luck in situations like this.”

Julian said Perrilloux is finally in basketball shape and the sky is the limit for his star senior.

“Ryan Perrilloux in my opinion is the best athlete in the nation,” Julian said. “In the game, he will turn into that player. Whatever you need, he is capable of getting for you. That is what we depend upon him for.

“John Ehret tried to stop our outside game, but we were just so big inside. Jamal Breaux played great and of course Ryan overshadowed everybody.

“They were good athletes, the played a great game, but I just felt like we were the better team. Even though they fought back and put the game into overtime, I felt like we were in control of the game for a majority of the time. I think our depth prevailed.”

Julian said his team still has a lot of improving that can still do and other teams better watch out if his squad and put together the complete game.

“I think the first 28 minutes is how I have been hoping for us to play all season,” Julian said. Saying that, I don’t think that we have peaked yet. I think we are still looking for that great game. We haven’t had that great game yet. We have had some great games in spurts, but we have yet to put together that complete 32 minutes and I think that is what we are in search of.

“I think if we can do that, we can beat any team. I think that we have shown we can beat teams because we are still in the playoffs, but if we can put together a full 32 minutes of focus, then we will be a pretty good team.”