By RYAN ARENA
Sports Editor

As East St. John stepped foot on its home floor on Friday night, it ranked only 28th in power points in Class 5A despite an impressive 16-7 start.

ESJ Coach Troy Giordano said that his team badly needed a signature win. And in that case, the Wildcats certainly crossed some “T’s” and dotted some “I’s” against visiting Mount Carmel, romping to a 66-34 victory in Reserve.

“We had a lot of energy tonight,” said the Wildcats’ Ciara Augillard, who scored 12 points. “I think we’ve just bonded together. It’s a really big boost. We feel confident enough to where we can beat anyone now.”

Mount Carmel (10-11) had no answer for senior point guard Mechel’le Thomas, who scored 25 points and set up numerous other baskets for teammates off of her drives to the lane.

“They stayed man to man on us,” said Giordano. “I thought they’d go to the zone. We can shoot it well, but they took the three away. But that allowed Mechel’le to get to the basket, and when they collapsed on her she’s good enough to find an open shooter.”

Mount Carmel scored the first six points of the game, and the first quarter ended with the teams tied at 13.

“I dunno how many layups we missed (in the first quarter),” said Giordano. “We missed our free throws. We really played sloppy at the beginning.”

After that, the game belonged to the Wildcats. ESJ (17-7) held Mount Carmel to six second quarter points and took a 30-19 lead into the half.

Back to back shots by Mount Carmel, including a 3-pointer by Ashley Lala, cut the ESJ lead to 33-24 early in the third quarter. It was as close as MCA would get. After three quarters, ESJ led 45-32.

Baskets by Thomas and Korielle Tucker keyed a 6-0 run to start the fourth. MCA answered briefly with a bucket, but the Wildcats ended the game on a 15-2 run to bust the final scoring differential wide open. Augillard, Halle Lennix, and Bria Joseph all scored buckets in transition to fuel the run.

“They’re a very good basketball team, but they mainly want to play a halfcourt game,” said Giordano. “They pound you inside and shoot it well from outside. We wanted to make it a full court game to take them out of the element they’re used to. We trapped them, forced the issue and it got them to take some quick shots.”

Joseph finished with 11 points for ESJ.

Francesca Lawrence scored nine to lead MCA.

The Cubs had a height advantage on the interior — as the guard oriented Ladycats are used to facing – but ESJ was able to neutralize their interior scoring.

“We packed it in. We didn’t want to give their bigs anything easy,” said Giordano.

“This is the most complete game we’ve played all season. It’s what we needed.”