By RYAN ARENA
L’Observateur

RESERVE — East St. John’s Da’Rae Taylor scored 16 points and made 10 steals to lead her Wildcats to a 53-36 victory over Donaldsonville at Lutcher Thursday night as part of the St. James/Lutcher girls basketball tournament.

ESJ (6-3) outscored Donaldsonville 16-6 in the first quarter and never looked back.

Bianca Harvey and Janira Collier scored nine and seven points, respectively, for Donaldsonville.

Taylor, ESJ coach Jackson Manuel said, has begun to get in a groove after something of a slow offensive start.

“She was really on,” Manuel said. “When the season began, she wasn’t scoring like we expected, and I can’t put my finger on why. But she’s really turned the corner.”

He said the senior point guard, who led ESJ in scoring last season, is showing off an all-around game this season.

“She’s come up tremendously,” Manuel said. “It looks like all the lessons she learned early when she was backing up (former ESJ point guard) Kanitra Lee are now coming to fruition. She’s looking like a much more mature player, and it’s a great thing to see.”

Another player who Manuel was pleased with Thursday was freshman Taylor Lipps.

Lipps, usually a starter at guard, came off the bench due to a minor injury sustained at practice, but her defensive play proved valuable.

“She took an elbow to the eye this week and I was a little tenative to put her in there,” Manuel said. “She convinced me she was OK to go. She went in and played some very, very solid defense. We were able to put her on their best ballhandler for stretches, and that allowed Da’Rae to move to their second best.

“If Da’Rae’s taking their second best ballhandler, when we’re in that position we’re going to be very tough on people.”

Manuel said the Wildcats really turned on the defensive pressure in the fourth quarter.

“We picked our pressure back up,” Manuel said. “Our press kicked in, and you could see the results.”

The Wildcats return to action at 3 p.m. today at  Lutcher as tournament action continues. ESJ will face off with John Ehret.

Next week, ESJ opens district play at home against Terrebonne. The game will tip off at 6 p.m. Friday. The game was originally set to be played at Terrebonne, but the teams swapped home dates.