By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

DESTREHAN — East St. John girls basketball coach Jackson Manuel perhaps summed things up best moments after his Ladycats tangled with archrival Destrehan Tuesday.

“It’s East St. John and Destrehan. It’s an all-out war,” he said.

It was a wild one between the two teams atop the District 8-5A standings, with East St. John coming away with a 56-50 win in overtime after a wild 36 minutes of action.

Destrehan trailed by 12 with 3:46 left in regulation but rallied to force overtime on Alexis Jackson’s putback of a missed free throw with 53.4 seconds left.

But East St. John shook off that surge as Jermani Thompson scored six of her team’s 12 points in overtime to lead ESJ to the victory.

“For us, it’s been no sleep, no rest, no breaks coming into tonight,” said Thompson. “This is the game we’ve been waiting for. We wanted this one so much.”

Manuel said that his team’s ability to bounce back from Destrehan’s late push was a big difference.

“When you have two good teams, they’re both going to make runs,” he said. “It’s how you handle those runs. It’s remaining who you are and remembering that what you do works.

“We live and die by our defense. That’s how we made our run and that’s what we drew upon in overtime.”

The win avenged a 59-52 loss to Destrehan (16-13, 6-1) on Jan. 11. The ESJ win Tuesday pulled it into a tie atop the 8-5A standings, each team boasting a 6-1 district record. Both teams have three games remaining; if each wins out, the two would split district championship honors.

“We battled back. But it’s like I told them … you got yourself into a mess,” said Destrehan coach Angi Butler. “We had 19 turnovers and made just 15 of 31 free throws. Missed layups … It was a little bit of everything.”

Thompson led ESJ (18-8, 6-1) with 17 points. Da’Rae Taylor scored 15 and Brishane Haynes added 10.

Luckii Wells led Destrehan with 14 points. Jordan Dabney scored 13. Kayla Smothers scored 12 and Jasmine Morris added eight.

After Wells sank a shot to push Destrehan ahead 26-20 with 1:18 left in the third quarter, things started to shift ESJ’s way.

Thompson got to the line and sank two free throws. Then came one of the night’s key momentum sequences when Kariontae Victor made a layup in transition and drew a foul; she missed the free throw, but Nya Duhe got the offensive rebound and kicked it out to Victor for a 3-pointer, netting ESJ a five-point possession and a 27-26 lead.

“This was probably the best game Kariontae’s played at East St. John,” said Manuel. “She stepped up big. We had a lot of people step up big.”

ESJ kept pushing to begin the fourth, buoyed by the return of Taylor to the lineup — she sat in foul trouble in the late part of the third. Taylor found Crystal Kemp for a wide-open layup to begin the final frame, then Taylor drove for a layup to make it 33-25.

Kemp blocked a shot to ignite a fast break and Haynes converted a layup to make it a 10-point gamer. Another Haynes layup made it 38-30, then Taylor made a nice pass in the lane to find Thompson for a score. Taylor’s pull-up jumper moments later gave ESJ a 42-32 lead, then Taylor scored off a dish from Haynes to put ESJ ahead by 12.

But Destrehan didn’t roll over. Smothers scored consecutive buckets, the second of them a 3-pointer to cut the lead to seven. Dabney drew a foul and sank two at the line, then Wells scored a layup on an inbounds play to make it 44-41.

Taylor missed the front end of a one-and-one, but Destrehan turned it over. Destrehan came up with the stop it needed on the next ESJ possession, though, and Smothers drew a foul; she made a free throw and missed the second, but DHS came up with the offensive rebound and Jackson converted a layup to tie it at 44. DHS had a chance to win in regulation after stopping ESJ one more time, but Dabney’s 3-pointer missed its mark at the buzzer.

“We had to rebuild our momentum,” said Taylor, who began overtime by making a layup. “There was 2:51 left and we tried to start working the clock down. It was too early for that and Destrehan came back.”:

With 2:38 left in overtime, Taylor fouled out. DHS led 47-46 before Haynes drew a foul and put ESJ back ahead with two free throws. Morris made a layup to push DHS back ahead, but Thompson immediately returned the favor by slashing to the goal.

Thompson relentlessly drove into the paint, hitting 9 of 11 free throws.

“Just keep attacking,” she said. “When (Taylor) went to the bench, I knew I had to step up for my team.”

Added Manuel, “Jermani stepped up like the champion she’s been all year.”

ESJ continued attacking and its defense did the rest; a Smothers game-tying free throw was DHS’ last point of the night. Haynes put ESJ ahead for good with a free throw, then Thompson made two to make it 53-50. Then Kannisha Brooks made a big defensive play, jumping a pass at midcourt for a steal and getting fouled. She made one of two at the line. Thompson capped things with a pair of free throws.