By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

LAPLACE – Dominique DiCarlo’s 21 points and six steals led the way for St. Charles on Monday night as it defeated visiting McGehee, 45-35, in a District 9-2A game.

The victory keeps SCC (8-13, 2-3) alive for the third and final playoff spot that is up for grabs in the district race. The Comets trail John Curtis, Riverside and Haynes.

“I see more excitement out of our players right now,” said St. Charles coach Kelly Cupit. “We started quicker tonight. When we come out and put forth the effort early like we did tonight we make it our game and not the opposition’s.”

St. Charles finished the first quarter on a high note when Courtney Snyder nailed a shot at the buzzer to make it 13-8 in favor of SCC.

The lead would grow from there. Heather Orillion made a jumper to make it 15-8. DiCarlo canned a 3-pointer from the wing to push the lead into double figures.

Her putback made it 20-10, and she’d make another jumper to make it 24-14.

McGehee pushed back before halftime to keep things interesting. The Hawks’ Sam Tillery made back-to-back shots to make it 24-16, and a 3 by Lacee Ancer made it a five-point game at halftime.

A pair of buckets early in the second half by McGehee’s Helen Kohnke and Meg Adams cut SCC’s lead to 26-23.

But McGehee would get no closer. A DiCarlo shot would make it 30-23.

Nicole Doming converted a jumper to make it 32-25, and a DiCarlo layup made it a nine-point Comet advantage.

Emily Picciola made two shots early in the fourth quarter that pushed the SCC lead to 11, then 13 points. St. Charles would lead by as many as 15, and protected its lead just as it had from early in the first half.

“We focused on protecting the ball,” said DiCarlo.

“We weren’t going to throw it away. That allowed us to finish strong.”

Picciola scored 14 points for the Comets. Alex Hitt grabbed a team high 13 rebounds.

Adams led the Hawks with 13 points. Tillery scored nine.

Cupit said the Comets focused on limiting the damage that Tillery, the Hawks’ leading scorer on the season, could cause.

“We wanted to make them rely on other people, and its something that turned it for us,” said Cupit. “We matched her up man-to-man in our press so that she couldn’t bring the ball up.”