By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

EDGARD – With its coach back patrolling the sidelines, East St. John returned to the business of winning Friday night, defeating West St. John 81-45 in a non-district contest.

Kaylon Placide scored 16 to lead all scorers as ESJ jumped out to an early lead and rode the momentum to victory.

The Wildcats (8-11) led 18-7 after the first quarter, but found its groove in the second, outscoring the Rams 27-12 in the period to take a 45-19 halftime advantage, effectively burying West St. John’s chances of a rally.

“I think it came down to defense,” said East St. John coach Yussef Jasmine, who returned to his team for the first time after being sidelined over a month due to illness. “We played mostly man early, but in the second quarter we went to our halfcourt trap and started forcing turnovers. We got a lot of points off of those.”

Chester Victor and Patrick Gales each scored 11 for the Wildcats. Joe Williams added nine.

Stephen Brignac led the Rams (5-9) with 11 points. Dray Joseph scored eight.

Jasmine said that of chief concern with his team entering the night was to try and fix some of the problems that have plagued it in losing six games by two points this season. The coach believes that progress has been made on that front.

“In close games, you need to be disciplined, to value every possession,” said Jasmine. “I felt like we did that.

“When we forced turnovers, we made sure to capitalize. When we had the ball, we took care of it.”

West St. John got rolling offensively in the fourth quarter, scoring 20, but it was too late to make a true dent in the scoring differential.

But perhaps the most significant occurrence to come from the night was indeed Jasmine being reunited with his players.

“They missed me and I missed them,” said Jasmine. “I was excited just to be back at practice. I was eager to see them play again.”