For the second time this season, Westlake and St. Louis Catholic locked into a defensive battle.

After losing 34-27 in the first meeting, Westlake squeezed out a few more points to add to a great defensive performance to win 35-31 on Friday at Barbe High School.

“The defense played well again tonight,” Westlake head coach Doug Morris said. “We played well the first game, but we just couldn’t put the ball in.

“We made another eight points tonight. Our defense still played well, and we came up with a few more baskets. It was a hard-fought game, and my kids played really well and played hard.”

Westlake held the Saints (14-8, 2-1) to 8 of 48 shooting (16.7 percent), including 3 of 18 in the fourth quarter.

While it was the fourth time in five games that the Rams (12-7, 1-1) scored less than 40 points, Morris was pleased with his team’s play in the first District 3-3A win.

“Tonight was probably one of the better games we actually played, even offensively,” Morris said. “I know we didn’t score a lot of points, but we are actually executing better.

“We are making better shots, or at least we are looking to make the extra pass where before we were not making the extra pass. We looked a lot better tonight, and hopefully, we can continue it.”

Like the Saints, the Rams had their own offensive struggles, going 10 of 39 (25.6 percent). They didn’t make a field goal (0-for-11) in the second quarter as they went from a 10-7 lead to a 16-14 deficit at halftime.

“I am missing my top scorer (Kevin Rideau), a three-year starter, so that hurts,” Morris said. “We have to make layups.

“We missed a bunch of possessions at the bucket. We have to put those in. If we do that, that is at least another 10 to 12 points.”

St. Louis took its first lead of the game with 1:53 left in the first half on a bucket in the lane by Clayton Blackledge to go up 15-14. Blackledge added another bucket to open the second half, but the Saints made just one more shot the rest of the third quarter. They went without a field goal for nearly six minutes. The Rams led by as many as seven points until Joe Devall’s three cut the Rams’ lead to 28-24 with 3:51 left in the game.

Devall led St. Louis with 10 points.

Ryan Allen (11) and Avan Breaux (13) each hit double-digit scoring for Westlake.