By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

LAPLACE — For a half, Ascension Catholic made things interesting with host St. Charles at the Comets’ annual tournament.

But after halftime, the most interesting thing of note was the performance of the Comet defense – make no mistake, it was truly airtight.

St. Charles held the Bulldogs to three second half points en route to a 50-18 victory Wednesday, concluding play in its tourney with a 2-0 mark.

John Williams Jr. led SCC with 17 points. Taylor Peytavin scored eight. Nine different Comets scored in the game.

The Comets (6-7) led 25-15 at halftime, but built an 18-point third quarter lead when it held ACHS to two points in the period.

Impressive as that was, SCC topped the feat in the fourth, allowing only a single point. All three second half points came at the line for the Bulldogs, who did not make a single shot from the field.

“I think it was about our help side defense,” said Williams Jr.

“Guys stepping up when one of us is beat. We just focused on what our coach told us at halftime and executed it.”

SCC coach Chris Perrone said that he felt the Comets’ first half performance was solid enough defensively, but that his team just got into a groove after halftime.

“We talked at halftime about picking up our defensive play,” said Perrone. “We felt like if we increased our intensity on defense, we could create our offense and get some easy baskets.”

Perrone noted that Ascension Catholic’s decision to switch to a zone in the second quarter slowed the pace of the game, allowing SCC to perhaps harbor fresher legs in the second half.

“I thought what really helped us defensively was we didn’t have to overextend ourselves against the 2-3 zone,” said Perrone.

SCC led 11-8 in the first half when Williams Jr. and Telvin Campbell each made 3’s to extend the lead to 17-9. SCC led by as many as 11 in the first half.

But the Comets truly took charge in the third quarter, scoring the first 10 points of the quarter to make it 35-15 – Jesse Coleman, Birch Matus, Skii Dyer and Williams Jr. all scored in the run. Ascension Catholic (6-9) did not score until almost seven minutes had passed in the period on a Frankie Sotile free throw.

Back-to-back Williams Jr. buckets made it 40-17 in the fourth, and SCC never looked back.

Williams’ 17 points was the latest in a string of double digit scoring nights for the sophomore.

“I think I’m maturing as a player,” he said. “I’m starting to visualize things on the court.”

He also said that the pair of wins this week should be a boon to the team going into the holiday break.

“It feels great. I know people have been expecting losses from us,” he said.

“But we’re out to prove that we’re a successful team.”