By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

RESERVE – East St. John bounced back from a tough loss to defeat Lutcher at Troy Giordano Memorial Gym Thursday, taking a convincing 55-25 win.

The Wildcats led 27-10 at halftime and immediately slammed the door in the third quarter, scoring the first 14 points of the second half.

Combined with the end of the first half, the run finished at 19-0.

East St. John coach Jackson Manuel said his team’s second half focus came as no accident.

“We had an identical first half against Walker. Then we came out, scored one in the third quarter, and end up losing the game,” said Manuel. “I think the girls knew I wasn’t pleased with that, and neither were they. I reminded them of it (at halftime). I think they were determined to not let it happen again.”

Said ESJ’s Kanitra Lee, who scored nine: “We weren’t going to play to the score. We just wanted to come out and play together, regardless of the opponent, push it up the floor, and defend our home court.”

Each team struggled to score early on. The Wildcats led 5-0 with 2:38 left in the first quarter and Lutcher did not score until the 2:18 mark.

“It was just a matter of getting into a flow,” said Manuel.

But ESJ (7-4) soon got rolling. Back-to-back 3-pointers by Bria Joseph lifted ESJ to a 11-1 lead. A free throw and a jumper by Lee gave ESJ a 14-3 advantage after a quarter.

Essence Peterson’s back to back buckets put Lutcher within 12, 22-10, with two minutes left in the first half. But ESJ began its clinching run.

First, Halle Lennix found Kemyra Arvie underneath for a quick two. Then Brianne Brown canned a 3-pointer from the corner to end the first half scoring.

The Wildcats turned up their defensive pressure in the third quarter and Lee started to warm up, scoring on three consecutive layups, two coming off Lutcher turnovers. That made it 33-10. Two Arvie free throws were followed by a Brown jumper to make it a 27 point lead. A put back by Journae King made it 29, and another bucket by Brown made it a 41-10 ESJ advantage.

Arvie finished with 12 points to lead all scorers. Brown finished with 11. Lee and Joseph each scored nine.

Peterson led Lutcher (6-5) with 10.

WALKER 44, ESJ 40 – Walker (5-6) outscored the Wildcats 16-1 in the third quarter to overcome a 14-point halftime deficit to win 44-40 Tuesday.

Joseph scored 14 to lead ESJ. Arvie scored eight.

ESJ led 26-12 at halftime.

Mina Romita led Walker with 15 points.