BY DAVID FOLSE II

Sports Editor

RESERVE-It didn’t take long for the East St. John Wildcats to find their winning ways once again.

Behind 16 points from Ryan Perrilloux and nine points from Ryan Stipe, the Wildcats defeated Hahnville, 42-38.

With the win, East St. John improves to 24-8 on the season and 9-3 in district play.

Wildcats head coach Charles Julian was happy to see his team bounce back after such a tough loss .

“It was a good game,” Julian said. “We just tried to control the tempo and we were able to do that. They tried to do the same thing. It was a tough battle of wills.”

In their loss to Thibodeaux last week, the fourth quarter was the achilles heel for the Wildcats. However against Hahnville, East St. John seem to step it up when it mattered the most, outscoring the Tigers 10-5 in the game’s final period.

“Down the stretch we really played as a team,” Julian said. “We did it a little bit more than we had been in the last couple of games and it ended up costing us the game against Thibodeaux. Tuesday we were able to come out and play hard and got the win.

“I think our team really played their hearts out. The big key was that they executed the way that we needed them to down the stretch. We had a few too many turnovers, but our ability to execute late was the turning point in the game.”

Julian was also happy with the balance scoring that his team had against Hahnville.

“Ryan Perrilloux is the type of player that can break out and score at any time,” Julian said. “I am confident in the other members of this team that they can score.

“Ryan being gone so much this season has made it hard for us to play together as one unit. I don’t think that we are playing the best basketball that we are capable of this point.”