Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

LAPLACE — New additions to the coaching staff and a lot of inexperience on the court had many people outside of the program looking at this season as a rebuilding year.

Coach Jeffery Vitrano saw it differently.

“We had a lot of inexperienced players going into the season, but we also had one of St. Charles Catholic’s most successful players in the history of the school,” he said.

“This year was really about building confidence in the younger ones while letting Mya Brown lead the team on the court.”

And she did.

She finished her career this season with an incredible 2,078 career points.

Although she battled through some injuries, Mya kept pushing along.

“She took on a big responsibility this year,” Vitrano said. “She was the main focal point on every team’s scouting report. We knew other teams would try everything in their power to keep the ball out of her hands and keep her away from the basket.

“She would get hacked, pushed and/or pulled every game and not always get the calls. But she kept playing.”

Toward the end of the season, she got a little help on the scoring end and that helped the team and her gain some confidence going into the playoffs, Vitrano said, referring to his freshman point guard Chavez Smith.

The coaches and Vitrano made the decision early to give Chavez the keys to the offense.

Not a true point guard, there were bumps in the road.

“She started to figure out that she could score from that position as well as navigate the offense, and she had a few big games,” Vitrano said.

Smith scored the highest single game point total of the year for the Lady Comets — 32 points against Covington, the final game of the regular season.

After going 11-19 in the regular season, the Lady Comets earned enough power points to host a playoff game, finishing as the No.16 seed, and .02 points ahead of their first round opponent Northlake Christian.

After a second half comeback and a 20-point performance from Brown and 10 from Smith, the Lady Comets won and traveled to Newman.

Going into the second round, Vitrano said he and the staff knew what needed to be done to come out with a road playoff victory at a familiar district foe, Isidore Newman.

“Going into the game, we knew that Yunusah (District MVP) and Bean (All-District First Team) were our keys to success,” he said. “Keep Bean off the boards, and keep Yunusah out of the paint. If we could do that and get Mya going early then we had a really good chance.”

Unfortunately, Newman kept pushing. The Lady Comets stayed with them in the first quarter despite less than great shooting, but the team went ice-cold in the second quarter.

Newman forced turnovers that led to points on their end, it was a tough battle to get back in the game.

Newman led 30-11 at half after only leading by 3 after the first quarter. Another cold quarter had the Lady Comets down 40-14 and it was beginning to look like a blowout. The Lady Comets never gave up outscoring Newman 16-4 in the fourth quarter but it was too little, too late. The Lady Comets fell 44-30 and the season was over.

“Looking back at the season there were a lot of ups and downs. We won some big games that took a lot of teamwork, and we lost a few games that we should have won,” Vitrano said. “We were able to get scoring help at different moments throughout the year from Taylor (Robinson), Megan (McMillon), Katelyn (Hebert), and Jayia (Bailey).  We battled ankle injuries, asthma, shin splints, bruises, finger issues, torn ligaments, and it seemed like we were never 100% healthy. But we kept battling and came away with a playoff win and some positives to build on going forward.”

The Lady Comets finished the season with 12 wins (including a playoff victory) and several individual honors.

Mya Brown was named to the Clarion Herald’s Elite Girls’ Basketball Team for the third straight year, All-District 1st Team for the 4th straight year, became a member of the 2000 point club at SCC for career points.

Chavez Smith received All-District 2nd Team honors and scored over 300 points for the season. Taylor Robinson received All-District Honorable Mention.