By RYAN ARENA
Sports Editor

After a quarter of play Tuesday night, East St. John led a shorthanded West St. John squad 17-15 as Wildcats Coach Yussef Jasmine implored his team to pick up its defensive effort.

Three quarters later, he had no complaints.

ESJ allowed only three second quarter points and 21 the rest of the way as the Wildcats blew open the game, downing their local rivals 62-36 in Reserve.

“In the locker room, Coach said we needed to pick up our defense, and that’s what we did,” said LeBaron Sylvester, who scored 15 points to lead East St. John (10-11). “We wanted to keep the pressure on them.”

West St. John Coach Antoine Edwards was without some key players due to disciplinary reasons, which left his rotation short. That proved to be a key shortcoming against a deep Wildcats team that rotated 15 players into the first half alone.

“They were outmanned, with a couple of guys out,” said Jasmine. “But we did alright defensively. We kept them in front of us. When we keep people in front of us, we’re good.”

In the first quarter, the West St. John’s Alton Joseph did his part to keep things interesting. The Ram center scored eight of his game high 23 points in the opening period, helping his team to establish a 15-11 lead. But two layups by Malcom Lago and a jumper by Sylvester allowed ESJ to end the quarter on a 6-0 run to take a two point lead.

With the score tied at 17 early in the second quarter, East St. John took control. Sylvester punched in a jumper, then two free throws to make it 21-17. Those points jumpstarted a 15-1 run to end the half, punctuated by a Kalen Henderson putback.

The beginning of the second half was no better for the Rams, as Lago made two steals in the first minute of play and converted each into layups at the other end, putting ESJ ahead 36-18.

“Bad passes, leading to them making easy baskets – at some point, you have to stop beating yourself,” said Edwards. “If we’re more patient, and I’m not saying we wouldn’t have lost, but it wouldn’t have been as bad.”

A Joseph basket seemed like it would stop the run, but the Wildcats scored the next seven points unanswered to make it 43-20, a lead simply too large for West St. John (5-9) to overcome.

Lago finished with 11 points. Lucas Martin scored 10. In all, 10 ESJ players scored.

“All year, we’ve had that kind of balance,” said Jasmine.

Corey Warmington was second in scoring for WSJ with five points.