EDGARD — The West St. John High School girls’ basketball team kicked off its season with a game against the Warren Easton Lady Eagles Monday.

“We lost 42-63,” WSJ girls basketball head coach Lester Smith said.

“We went into the game prepared. We were playing a No. 18 team in the nation and it was recorded for ESPN.

“We were prepared for them, but they are a really good team.

“We lost by 21 points, but we were leading in the first quarter. We were down by 5 in the second quarter and by the third we were down by 10. They scored 23 points in the fourth quarter and we only scored 12.”

Smith said his team has a lot of talent despite its size.

“We are not deep in numbers,” Smith said.

“But we are good at what we do. We’ve been practicing since October and the girls are ready to win.”

The Lady Rams have some standout players.

Senior Maya Trench is now a Xavier commitment. She scored 13 points against Easton.

“My top scorers are Maya, Lakendra Lewis and Jaquana Hunter,” Smith said.

Lewis, a senior, scored eight points in Monday’s game and Hunter, a junior, added nine points.

The Lady Rams will be traveling to New Orleans Monday for a tournament at St. Mary’s Academy.

“We’ve been going over the mistakes we made in our last game,” Smith said. “We had a lot of turnovers in that game, so we are trying to be a little more disciplined. I’m feeling confident about the tournament.”

The West St. John Lady Rams’ made it to quarterfinals of the Class 1A State Championship last season, and Smith said his goal is to win a state title this season.

“We went to state and lost in the quarterfinal rounds for the last two years,” Smith said.

“The year before that we made it to the final round, but lost by two points. We are going to win this year.”

Smith is counting on Maya Trench to help bring the team to the final round at State.

“Maya scored 448 points for us last year,” Smith said. “She only has 111 points to scored to hit a career 2,000 points. Adding Lewis and Hunter to her game and we’ll get there.”

By Courtney Griggs