Tom Dodge
The Blue Jays jumped out to a 19-4 first quarter lead as St. Edmund earned a 64-50 win Tuesday over University Academy of Central Louisiana.
The Lions scored first, but the Blue Jays answered with a 13-0 surge including seven points from Easten Coleman.
University Academy then scored on a put-back bucket to close the gap to 13-4 with 2:10 left in the period.
St. Ed’s finished the quarter with a 6-0 run, aided by buckets from Coleman and Alex Fontenot to go with free throws by Alex Dupre and Henry Brown.
Coleman led the Jays in the period with nine points.
The two offenses battled in the second quarter but St. Ed’s took a 34-14 advantage into the intermission.
Brown and Kieran Davis scored to open the period for the Jays.
Braylon Ware pushed in a second-chance bucket for the Lions, but Brown scored on back-to-back drives in the lane to give SEH a 27-6 lead.
Dupre added a trey and Coleman scored in the lane as the Jays moved ahead, 32-10.
Akorian Smith and Jayce Juneau scored on a consecutive Lion possessions, but Dupre’s bucket with three seconds left increased the Jays’ margin to 20 points at the break.
Sequan Norman hit a jumper to open the third frame for the Lions, but Davis answered with a wide-open dunk.
Norman’s strong third quarter continued with a three-pointer and a drive in the lane as the Lions fought to stay in the contest.
Dupre hit two free throws before UA answered with a 5-0 run to close the gap to 38-26 with 3:12 left in the period.
Davis pushed in three points for the Jays, but the Lions responded with five points of their own.
Brown scored twice on floaters in the final minute sandwiched around a trey by Ty Mix.
St. Edmund took a 45-36 advantage into the fourth quarter where the Jays exploded for a 7-0 run.
Brown continued his impressive night with drives in the lane as the Jays pushed ahead, 52-36.
The two teams exchanged buckets before the Lions went on a 7-0 run begun with a trey from Mix.
St. Ed’s sealed the win with eight free throws in the final two minutes.
Brown finished with 25 points to lead the Jays, while Coleman added 14 points.
Davis chipped in 11 points and Dupre contributed 10 points.
Norman led UA with 18 points.
St. Edmund closes the regular season Friday at Vinton.