West St. John streaks to championship game at Riverside through Grace King, St. Charles and Central Lafourche

By JOHNNY PEPPO

Sports Editor

RESERVE– West St. John topped the Riverside Academy Holiday Classic this week, taking convincing wins over Fisher and Central Lafourche on Tuesday and Thursday, and a nail-biter over St. Charles Catholic in overtime on Wednesday. The eight team, three-day tournament also saw the Comets in two other close games as they got past E.D. White and Grace King while Riverside got their third win of the season in the final day of action when they beat Fisher 50-38.

The first day of action paired West St. John and Fisher in the opening game of the tournament on Tuesday. The Rams took control early and won the game handily as they finished with a 95-51 final score. The evening game pitted St. Charles against E.D. White where the Comets got by with a 56-51 win which advanced them to see the Rams on the top half of the bracket in the second day of action. The bottom half of the bracket matched up Ridgewood and Central Lafourche where the Lafourche team knocked off Ridgewood 70-50. The late game on Tuesday put Riverside up against Grace King where the Rebels struggled to put up points on the board, falling 38-30.

The best game of the tournament by far was held on Tuesday when WSJ met SCC for the seventh game overall. Here, the Rams and St. Charles traded blows throughout as West St. John held a slight edge after the first half.

A healthy third quarter on the offensive side for St. Charles gave the Comets a chance to surprise the Rams, but the WSJ defense tightened up in the fourth quarter, holding SCC to six points and forcing overtime. The extra period, as well as most of regulation, was dominated by close range buckets by West St. John’s Daniel Stipes and St. Charles’ Michael Troglen.

West St. John pulled it out by the end of the overtime period with defense that sent the Comets into the consolation bracket with a 62-60 final score.

&#8220WSJ has got an excellent ball club with really good athletes,” SCC coach Jeff Montz said after the game. &#8220Against a team like that you can never be comfortableŠ. Both teams had excellent opportunities, they just made one more than we did, so they won by two and we came up short.”

&#8220We damn near gave it away,” said WSJ coach Antoine Edwards. &#8220We worked our way back into the game because our defense stepped up. I’m proud of that.”

Also on Thursday, Riverside took their third victory of the season when they topped Fisher 50-38 in the consolation bracket.

&#8220We just needed that win,” said Riverside head coach Tommy Monier.