By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

LAPLACE — Attempting to make it to the Top 28 tournament for the third straight season. West St. John took care of step one Thursday night in its Class 1A bi-district playoff opener against Delhi Charter, scoring 24 first quarter points en route to a 49-32 victory in Edgard. 

Jaquanna Hunter led a balanced Rams effort with 14 points. JuJuan Nicholas scored 11. Maya Trench and Mychelle Lumar added 10 each.

West St. John advances to the regional round where it will host No. 11 seed Country Day. Country Day defeated Basile 45-30 in the bi-district round. 

The Rams (24-4) have won 12 straight games.

WSJ took a 24-8 lead after the first quarter but slowed down offensively after that, scoring just seven, five and 13 points in the final three respective quarters. 

It wasn’t the offensive output the high-scoring Rams have grown used to, but the same gritty defense was on display. Delhi Charter scored more than eight points in just one quarter, a 12-point effort in the third.

“We shut it down a little bit after we got the big lead,” said West St. John coach Lester Smith. “We made some uncharacteristic turnovers. I was disappointed that we came out flat in the third quarter especially.’

“It wasn’t our best night offensively, but we always tell our kids that our defense has to carry us when the offense isn’t there. That’s what happened tonight.”

Shalondria Polly led Delhi Charter (10-16) with 15 points. 

Smith said he likes the balance the Rams are flashing offensively. While Trench has been the team’s leading scorer on the season, Nicholas has put up some explosive scoring efforts while Hunter has made an increasingly bigger impact on the scoring column. 

Lumar played one of her better games of the season as well.

“She got to the free throw line tonight which was a plus,” said Smith. “I like that right now, teams can’t look at us and decide to just take away Maya, because if they do that then others are showing they can step up.”