West St. Mary gains at least share of District 6-2A title

In an emotionally-charged contest, the West St. Mary Wolfpack gained at least a share of the District 6-2A Title by beating the Jeanerette Tigers 72-59 at the West St. Mary High School Gym.
West St. Mary locked up a share of the 2016 District 6-2A title by improving to 7-2 in conference play alongside the Catholic High of New Iberia Panthers, who will play the Loreauville Tigers tonight.
“It’s an awesome feeling to earn at least a share of the District 6-2A title,” West St. Mary Head Coach Gary Burrell said. “We had been striving toward this and it finally came true.”
West St. Mary turned in a gritty performance with balanced scoring answering every run from Jeanerette on the way to going 4-0 in the second round and also earning a share of the district title.
Jason Pierre led the Wolfpack in scoring with 20 points while Duante Charles fired in 16 points with Chris Snowden adding 15 points and Cristian Berard draining 13 points. Tywan Rouchon bagged five points while Shonathon Sparrow finished with one point.
West St. Mary and Jeanerette went toe-to-toe in a hotly-contested battle in a new chapter of a longtime rivalry played before a standing room only crowd of partisan fans.
The heated rivalry reached its boiling point in the final 57.4 of a hard-fought contest when play was stopped and both fan bases were asked to leave the gym.
The game was reportedly stopped when West St. Mary Assistant Coach Harry Coleman was hit by an object thrown from the stands, causing a stoppage of play with both teams on the court looking at the final 57.4 showing on the clock.
During the mayhem, West St. Mary Principal Dr. White asked fans of both teams to leave the gym and both teams were sent to the dressing rooms before the game could be completed. After most fans left the gym, the final 57.4 was played before the Wolfpack strolled away with the 72-59 District 6-2A victory.
Prior to the late-game drama, the Wolfpack figured out how to fight back against the highly-touted Tigers in a must-win situation.
With 4:24 remaining in the final period, the West St. Mary Wolfpack delivered the knockout punch when Carey Jackson doled out a perfectly timed pass to a wide open Chris Snowden, who scored on an uncontested layup and the subsequent free throw on the old-fashioned 3, giving WSM a 58-57 lead of which it would not relinquish.
A short time later, West St. Mary’s Duante Charles scored six straight points to push the Wolfpack ahead of the Tigers by seven points at 64-57.
Charles, who made 6 of 8 free throws on the night, drained four in a row over a span of nearly 90 seconds to lift the Wolfpack to a 62-57 advantage with 2:43 remaining in the nail-biting contest. Charles made his presence known again with a bank shot a short time later widening the Wolfpack lead to 64-57 with 2:21 blinking on the clock.
Snowden and Charles followed with three of four charity shots before Christian Barard made good on a putback shot, giving the Wolfpack a 12-point 69-57 cushion with 1:18 left to play.
After a long pause in the contest where both fan bases were asked to leave the gym play resumed with only five players from each team returning to the floor.
West St. Mary’s Seanathon Sparrow made his free throw, giving the Wolfpack a 72-59 lead.
Jeanerette finished the contest by holding the basketball for the final 20 seconds.
Pierre fired in eight field goals and 4 of 5 free throws to propel the Wolfpack. Charles made good on three deuces, two treys and 6 of 8 freebies for 16 points. Snowden drained 15 points, bagging two 3’s, three 2’s along with a perfect 3 of 3 from the charity stripe. Barard tossed in 13 points, including six field goals and 1 of 2 free throws. Rouchon added five points while Sparrow had one point to round out the scoring for the Wolfpack.
Edward Jordan led the Tigers in scoring with 27 points.
With the win, the West St. Mary Wolfpack will wait on the outcome of tonight’s Catholic High-Loreauville contest. A win by Catholic High will pit the Panthers against the Wolfpack in a special playoff contest to decide the first place team in District 6-2A possibly on Saturday at New Iberia Senior High School. If Catholic High loses to Loreauville tonight, the West St. Mary Wolfpack will be the outright District 6-2A Champion.