BY DAVID FOLSE II

Sports Editor

When you make the opposing team play your style of basketball, your chances for victory increase dramatically.

Exhibit A: East St. John vs. Central Lafourche.

Making the Trojans play their up-tempo style, Ryan Stipe and Ricardo Porter help lead the Wildcats to a 81-59 victory Tuesday night.

Porter finished the game with a team-high 15 points and Stipe had 14 points.

Never trailing, ESJ (15-5, 1-0) jumped out to an early 21-9 lead thanks in large part to nine points from Porter which all came from beyond the 3-point arc.

“I just felt it out there tonight,” Porter said. “I got a lot of open shots thanks to my teammates. My point guard Willie Lago got me a lot of open looks. I credit them.”

A captain along with Stipe, Porter said his team must continue to improve each game to reach its ultimate goal.

“Ryan and I are team captains and we know we have to get better,” Porter said. “We are just going to go out there and just provide the type of leadership that we need.”

With the Trojan defense keying on Porter in the second quarter, it was Stipe’s turn to emerge, scoring the final five points of the half to give the Wildcats a 48-27 halftime lead.

“We are a team that likes to run and they didn’t,” Stipe said of the game plan against Central Lafourche. “We forced them to do that.

“We won, but we still didn’t play our best tonight. We have to bring our ‘A’ game against Terrebone. I think we can do that.”

Happy with his team’s performance Wildcats head coach Charles Julian said there were other things that helped key the ESJ victory.

“The major difference in the game was our depth,” Julian said. “That along with our willingess to work hard proved to be the biggest key. We’re not playing the perfect game but we are in quest of it.

“I’m always telling the kids that we want to work as one unit. If we do that, we are going to be a hard team to beat. We have good shooters, ballhandlers and rebounders. I think we have everything that it takes to win.”