Dec. 8, 2006 — The Antilles School Lady Canes began their varsity basketball season on a high note Friday, soaring to a 53-28 victory over the Ivanna Eudora Kean High School Lady Rays.
Antilles began the game on a 10-0 run, capped off by an assist from Chantall Cooper to the team's center, Shari Jarvis, for an uncontested layup. With 11 seconds left in the first quarter, Kean got on the scoreboard with a layup, making the score 10-2 in favor of Antilles.
But Antilles kept the pressure on for the remainder of the first half with aggressive defense, causing many steals and numerous fast-break opportunities.
Not wanting to be disrespected on their home court, Kean picked up their defense, now going to a full-court press. Kean's La-Shanda Creque made a three-pointer, cutting the Lady Canes lead to 10 points and making the score 18-8 in favor of Antilles. Kean then stole the inbound pass and made a layup, pulling the Lady Rays within eight points.
Antilles Coach DeWitt Foster III, frustrated by his team's sloppy play, called a timeout to regroup his players. Antilles used the remaining time in the second quarter to push their lead to 28-11.
Antilles' uptempo style of play wore down Kean in the second half. At times, the Lady Rays seemed overwhelmed by the Canes' excellent ball handling and aggressive offensive performance, which eventually pushed the team to a 53-28 victory.
Leading scorers for Eudora Kean were Creque with eight points and Alanal Williams with seven.
For the Lady Canes, Victoria Hamilton had 17 points, while Julia Casazza finished with 10.
"[I'm] definitely pleased with the win," Foster said. "We got our first game under our belt, and that gives us momentum. We still have a ways to go, though. We have a lot to work on, but you know, we're getting better. The girls are starting to understand what I expect of them and vice versa, and it's good to get the first win out of the way."
Kean coach James Ludvig Sr., seemed optimistic about his team's play.
"Under the circumstances, I feel we did pretty well," he said. "With a little more conditioning and a little more practice, we should be right on track to where I think we should be."
The Lady Rays had only started to practice within the last two and a half weeks, Ludvig noted. Recently, the St. Thomas-St. John Interscholastic Athletic Association officials changed the varsity basketball schedule, cutting players' practice time by one month.
"This is our first game," Ludvig said. "I expected what I saw, and hopefully we can meet them again and the outcome will be different."
