Destrehan moved to 13-5 Tuesday as it rolled to victory over Warren Easton, 49-30 at home.
It was the Ladycats’ eighth win in the past 10 games and its second in a row after a 50-46 win over Mandeville Friday night.
It was a balanced scoring effort against Warren Easton led by Raya Johnson’s 10 points. Jaedyn Dickerson scored nine – and made a huge defensive impact with seven steals.
Destrehan held Warren Easton to just three points in the first quarter.
“It was a good night – very even across the board for us, almost everyone scored about the same amount of points,” said Twalla Powell, Destrehan head coach. “Raya Johnson had a strong night … she’s been doing a great job rebounding the ball and getting to the basket, scoring it and making her free throws. And Jaedyn, she’s doing a phenomenal job at point guard, and her defense – that really stood out.”
Dickerson’s having a breakout season as the Wildcats’ point guard – and she’s only a sophomore, so there’s much left to come.
“She plays both ends of the court very well and she controls the pace and tempo,” said Powell.
In the Wildcats’ 80-51 win over White Castle at Hahnville’s Pokey Chatman Invitational, Harmony Howard scored 25 and Kami Johnson scored 22. La’Jean Williams scored 10.
Howard and Johnson led the way again in DHS’ 53-44 win over Vandebilt Catholic at the Chatman Invitational, scoring 16 and 12 respectively. The two combined to hit five 3-pointers in the first quarter.
DHS’ lone two losses in the last 10 games came to John Curtis, 62-31, and Slidell, 79-51. Tough losses to tough teams, but Destrehan’s challenging schedule and strong performance throughout the year has the Wildcats ranked seventh in Division I non-select power rankings – well within the range needed to host a first round game and possibly more thereafter.
“I’m confident that we’re prepared for district play. We’ve played against a number of very tough teams. We’re sitting in a pretty good position right now – it’s also really important that we finish strong and play our best basketball down the stretch,” Powell said.
Destrehan will visit another good team in Southern Lab (16-3) Tuesday night. Southern Lab is the No. 1 power ranked team in Division IV select.
“Last year, they beat us by 30 points and then we came back and beat them the second game,” said Powell. “They’re a very aggressive team. They play very good defense and they can score the ball. One of the things we’re looking at is for our defense, our zone, to be able to contain them. Hopefully, Jae will be able to dictate the tempo, not let them press us and speed us up. If we can do that, and get some shots up at the basket and get to the free throw line, we have a good chance of winning this game.”
