RESERVE — For East St. John basketball coach Yussef Jasmine, revenge was sweet.

The Wildcats finished the first round of District 7-5A play Jan. 19 with an almost perfect record of 5-1. Only a 67-58 loss to H.L. Bourgeois on Jan. 5 marred it.

Friday night, it was East St. John’s turn, rallying from a double-digit deficit to take a 67-60 win. The Wildcats trailed by seven at the half and, at one point in the second half, were behind by 12. Jasmine said some key rebounding by Javon Antonio, another strong outing by Raekwon McKnight and a late surge by Troy Green were key to the victory.

Green and McKnight both finished with 19 points. Antonio finished with 14 points.

“They obviously wanted to slow Troy down,” Jasmine said. “He did a good job late in the game, coming back to score a lot of points (10 in the fourth quarter). He showed a lot of poise. I felt my guys really stepped up. We showed our grit.”

Jasmine said last week was big for the Wildcats (14-9), who scored victories against Central Lafourche (51-47), the pre-season favorite to win it, and Bourgeois, which went into district with the best overall record (13-5).

“They came in having lost two games in a row,” Jasmine said. “You know they really wanted to win it.”

The East St. John girls completed the sweep with a 70-31 Friday win over the Lady Braves.

Nakendria Wilson led all scorers with 14 points. Kynedi Pollard and Meah Monroe both scored 13. Briana Thompson scored 11.

East St. John improved to 15-7, 7-1 with the win as the Lady Wildcats prepare to host Destrehan on Friday.

Riverside Academy

The Riverside Academy Rebels were weekend road warriors. On Friday they boarded a bus and fought the Uptown parade traffic to take a 99-56 District 12-2A victory over Sophie B. Wright.

On Saturday, they boarded another bus to travel to Gulfport, Miss., to participate in the Hoopsfest Tournament.

There, the Rebels put on an impressive display in a 76-54 win over the Gulfport Admirals.

Riverside (17-9) hit 16 3-pointers in the game, including their first six baskets.

Jared Butler led the scoring with 27 points, including six 3-pointers.

Garland Robertson scored 23 points with seven 3-pointers. Malik Crowfield finished with 14 points.

Only one Admiral, Carl Terrell, finished in double figures. He scored 19 points.

Riverside’s Lady Rebels bounced back from a pair of losses to take a 39-30 victory over St. Mary’s Academy on Friday. Dannnecia Nora had a big night, scoring 16 points, nabbing 16 rebounds and collecting two steals.

Ja’Keyra Gautreaux scored seven points, Bree Neil scored six and Briley Becker scored five with five rebounds.

The Lady Rebels are now 13-9, 2-3.

St. Charles Catholic

It was a rough week for the Comets, who dropped their second District 12-2A game in a row Friday, losing 75-38 to Country Day. Jordan Arceneaux led with 12 points and Jobe Kelly scored 11.

With the loss, St. Charles fell to 11-11 overall and 1-4 in district play.

The St. Charles girls did not play Friday.

West St. John

West St. John dropped a 69-43 decision to Newman Friday night. Ryan Cannon scored 15 points. Amere Oubre scored 11 and Trevon Borne scored 11.

West St. John’s girls did not play Friday.