Despite outscoring East St. John in the second half, the Hahnville Tigers were unable to overcome a 40-21 first half deficit as they fell to the Wildcats, 79-67.
Edwin Winston paced the Wildcats to the victory on Friday after scoring 14 points in the first quarter, doubling the seven points scored in the opening frame by the entire Hahnville team.
“Certainly in the first half ESJ executed very well and our offense could not keep up,” Hahnville head coach Jerry Hernandez said. “We outscored them in the second half, but their lead was just too much.”
Hernandez said East St. John’s depth proved to be the difference.
“They have a number of players who could score,” he said. “I thought we handled their press very well, but did not handle their 2-3 zone like I thought we could have.”
In the third quarter, the Wildcats stretched their lead to 60-38. However, the Tigers mounted a comeback in the fourth by outscoring East St. John 29-19.
“Our run in the fourth quarter was just a matter of playing hard and being more aggressive,” Hernandez said. “Maybe it was the fact that we went to a man defense that made that happen. We’ll find out if that is the case in future games.”
With a little more than three minutes left in the game, the Tigers crept to within 10 points, but they couldn’t convert down the stretch.
Taj Scott and Juwan Green led the Tigers in scoring, both finishing with 16 points.
“Taj hit some threes and Juwan was able to penetrate their defense, which got him to the free throw line and created some shots for other people,” Hernandez said.
Fountainette Bradley added 11 points for Hahnville while Jamal Smith finished with 10 points.
Winston led East St. John with 27 points.
With the loss, the Tigers fell to 9-8 on the season with a 2-2 district mark. East St. John improved to 13-4 with a perfect 4-0 district record.
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