BY DAVID FOLSE II

Sports Editor

NORTH CENTRAL-The run continues for West St. John.

In their closest game of the season, the Rams defeated North Central on the road Tuesday night, 60-57 to advance to the state quarterfinals.

West St. John took on Ville Platte on the road last night for the right to advance to the Cajundome and the Top 28.

Juan Joseph led the Rams with 18 points and Dehaven Butler had 17 in the West St. John victory.

“Without a doubt when you get to this stage, whether you play good or bad you just want to win and advance,” Rams Head Coach Antoine Edwards said. “You want to keep advancing because everybody has one thing in mind and that is to get to the championship round.”

Edwards said his team’s defensive effort again ended up being the biggest reason for them coming away with the hard-fought victory.

“I thought we stepped up and played defense when we had to,” Edwards said. “We played good to start off, I thought overall we didn’t really turn the ball over that much and when we did they weren’t that crucial.

“When the situation got a little tough, we just held our composure and we stayed within the gameplan and pulled it off.”

A talented team, Edwards stopped short of saying his team is title contenders yet.

“I’m going to hold back on saying that we can win the whole thing yet,” Edwards said. ” I just want to take it one game at a time and I don’t want to look ahead at all. We just have to focus on each game that we play.

“I think if we are lucky enough to make it to the Top 28, I may be able to answer that question with some certainty, but right now we are going to put that on hold and just try to take care of business.”

The gameplan will not change the rest of the season according to Edwards if his team wants to survive.

“It’s the same thing every time we play,” Edwards said. “We have to go in there and play together as a team. We can’t turn the ball over, we have to play defense. Defense is going to win the championship for you.”

‘Whether you play good or bad you just want to win and advance.’

—WSJ HC Antoine Edwards

On his philsophy throughout the state playoff run