By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

NEW ORLEANS — East St. John players and coaches discussed one thing at halftime of Thursday night’s New Orleans CYO Tournament quarterfinal matchup with St. Thomas Aquinas and hammered the point home: defense, defense and more defense was needed to close out one of the state’s traditional basketball powers.

The message got through.

The Wildcats allowed just 15 second half points as ESJ advanced to the tournament semifinals, beating the Falcons 57-47 at Rummel.

“We were looking to push our defensive tempo even faster,” East St. John guard Tre’Von Jasmine said. “At halftime, we talked about it. We know they like to slow it down and they want to shoot the 3. We took away the 3 and took away their backdoor cuts and that cut down most of their offense.”

ESJ (4-2) defeated De La Salle in the first round of the tournament Wednesday, 72-66, to advance to the STA matchup.

Tre’Von Jasmine led the Wildcats with 18 points. Troy Green added 13, while Raekwon McKnight scored 11.

For STA, Jacob Drummond scored 19. Hunter Gebbia scored 11 and Cameron Dantzler scored 10.

Wildcats coach Yussef Jasmine said he knew the Falcons would aim to limit the production of Tre’Von Jasmine and Green, who scored 32 and 24 points respectively in their first round win over De La Salle, and that others would have opportunities.

One player who made the most of his was McKnight. East St. John generated some breathing room at the tail end of the first half and at the beginning of the second thanks in large part to some strong play from the Wildcats’ guard. McKnight scored two straight baskets, including a corner 3, to give ESJ a 31-29 lead. He made it three buckets in a row for his team after canning a 3, making it 34-30 late in the second quarter.

In the third quarter, Green got ESJ going with an inside score, then Arlandrian Martin scored in transition off a pass from Jasmine. Jasmine followed that assist with a 3 from the wing capping a 7-0 run to begin the third quarter. St. Thomas Aquinas went scoreless for the first three minutes and 51 seconds of the second half, their first points coming on two Gebbia technical foul shots.

“We gave up 32 (points) in the first half, and that’s too many,” ESJ coach Yussef Jasmine said. “We aim to keep teams at no more than 10 a quarter.”

STA trailed 49-38, but Drummond helped pull STA back into it, scoring first on a layup, then on two free throws to make it a seven-point game.

But the suffocating Wildcats defense dug in even deeper. St. Thomas Aquinas scored just two points in the first six-plus minutes of the final period. Jasmine scored five of the Wildcats’ eight points in the final period.

“We knew coming in St. Thomas Aquinas is a well-coached team and they’d be out to slow down the game,” Yussef Jasmine said. “We came out in the second half and looked at what they were doing on defense, got the ball into the right guys’ hands and they brought us home.”