By GEORGE MAHL – Sports Editor

LUTCHER – During the regular season, the St. Charles Catholic Lady Comets and the St. James Lady Wildcats spilt both of their games. However, Monday night’s tie-breaker game at Lutcher had more on the line than any of the other two games. Trailing 19-4 at the end of the first quarter, St. James fought back slowly to overtake the Lady Comets and earn a trip to the 3A playoffs with a 60-46 victory.

“It finally clicked for us tonight,” said St. James Head Coach Amy Blanchard.

“That third quarter gave us a lot of momentum,” she added.

The Lady Wildcats were finally able to catch SCC with about seven minutes left in the game. With St. Charles Catholic leading 34-33, Shantell Joseph sank a jump shot to give St. James its first lead of the game, 35-34.

An 8-0 run after that expanded the Lady Wildcats lead to 43-34 with 4:56 remaining. It did not look good early for St. James. The Lady Comets jumped on top early and took a 17-0 lead thanks to poor shooting from St. James. Six different players scored at least one point in the first quarter for the Lady Comets.

The third quarter saw the Lady Wildcats pull within five points. A three-pointer by Joseph cut the Lady Wildcats deficit to eight points, 27-19 with 6:45 remaining.

“It really hurts to lose a game like this,” SCC Coach Erin Remondet said.

“We got ahead of ourselves and started to turn the ball over.”