By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

NEW ORLEANS — East St. John’s Elex Carter grabbed an inbounds lob pass and slammed the ball with authority through the hoop, sending a wave of “oohs,” “ahs,” cheers and murmurs throughout Brother Martin’s Conlin Gym.

There was more than a quarter left to play in Wednesday’s clash between Class 5A contenders. But all the same, his slam-dunk all but slammed the door on the Crusaders. It put ESJ ahead 46-27 late in the third quarter and the Wildcats wouldn’t slow down, eventually finishing Martin off by a 66-47 score.

“We came out with a championship mindset tonight,” said Carter. “We played with a lot of intensity and got going early. After that, we never looked back.”

East St. John ended Brother Martin’s 13-game winning streak and avenged an early season loss to the Crusaders, a triple-overtime 80-77 Martin victory also played on its home floor.

“When you play a team twice like this, it allows you to gauge how much better you’re getting,” said East St. John coach Yussef Jasmine. “Brother Martin I’m sure has improved as well. But tonight was a perfect example of how far we’ve come ourselves.”

The Crusaders (19-2) were fresh off of winning the St. Pius X Christmas Classic, a national tournament in Atlanta. Brother Martin entered Wednesday’s game ranked second in Class 5A power points.

“They’ve got a program with great tradition. They’ve won championships here, had guys who have gone on to play in the NBA,” said Jasmine. “We know that in order to be that kind of program, which is where we want to be, we have to beat these teams that are there right now.”

But they never solved East St. John (11-6), which is putting together an impressive resume of its own. It avenged an early season defeat to O. Perry Walker at the Holy Cross tournament, defeating the Chargers 57-51. And at the same tournament, it dominated in a win over crosstown rival Riverside, besting the Rebels 79-59. ESJ fell 69-63 in overtime at St. Augustine, but the Wildcats were missing a pair of key contributors in Edwin Winston and Troy Green.

Those two, in fact, headed a balanced list of ESJ scorers on Wednesday. Winston scored a team-high 17, while Green added 11. Carter scored 10. Raekwon McKnight scored eight, while Kyle Patterson and Tre’Von Jasmine each scored seven.

Jalen Gray led Brother Martin with 18. Jordan Lumpkins scored 12 and Jordan Cornish added 11.

East St. John led 31-19 at halftime and nearly doubled that lead entering the fourth quarter, pushing it to 50-27.  

“We were focused on stopping their quick stuff,” said Carter. “We wanted to stop their penetration into the lane. At the other end, once they got into foul trouble, we kept attacking and got to the line.”

After a back and forth first quarter that fittingly ended on a pair of traded 3-pointers — by Gray and Tre’Von Jasmine — the Wildcats put an exclamation point on the second period by finishing the half on a 10-0 run.

A big key to the surge was the offensive rebounding of Winston, who kickstarted the run with a pair of consecutive putbacks that gave ESJ a 26-19 lead. After Carter saved a ball from going out of bounds, Tre’Von Jasmine scored on a layup when Martin was called for goaltending. Winston scored again off of a cut to the basket to make it 30-19, then added a free throw when he was fouled on another offensive rebound with 1.5 seconds left in the half.

“(Winston) can rebound the ball,” said Yussef Jasmine. “We know he can and that we’re gonna get that from him.”

Brother Martin began the game in a full-court press, and the Wildcats were able to handle the pressure — and in turn, score often in transition.

“We started getting the ball out quick early on,” said Yussef Jasmine. “We missed some easy shots early. If we make those, we might have been able to get out to a big lead in the first half.”

After the teams traded baskets to start the second half, Patterson and Green extended ESJ’s lead to 15 on free throws. Cornish nailed a runner over Carter’s outstretched hand, then Gray scored on a layup to make it 36-25.

But yet again, East St. John ended a quarter on a big run, this time finishing the third quarter on a 14-2 scramble. Green drove for a score, then Patterson drew a foul on a cut to the basket and made two free throws. Tre’Von Jasmine scored on a putback. Cornish scored, but Green sank two at the line to make it 44-27.

Carter slammed home two on an inbounds play to push the lead to 19.

McKnight scored on a layup and Green made a putback on the fast break to give ESJ a 23-point advantage.