By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

St. Charles defeated Haynes Friday night in convincing fashion, 72-32, and now likely needs a victory over John Curtis this week to make a bid for a playoff spot.

The game was tentatively scheduled for Thursday night, but St. Charles coach Chris Perrone noted it could be moved to tonight due to a girls playoff game at Curtis also scheduled for Thursday.

The Comets (12-13, 2-3) sit at 34 in power points within Class 2A, close to a potential wildcard draw. The top two teams in each district earn spots automatically, the rest to be determined by wildcard spots. A team must finish within the top 32 in power points to get in.

St. Charles can still earn the second slot in district behind Riverside as well and the automatic berth if it defeats Curtis twice – once this week, then again in a district playoff.

The Comets got out to an early lead on Haynes, leading 23-9 after a quarter and 44-17 at halftime.

Taylor Peytavin scored 21 points to lead all scorers. Mike Green scored 14 and John Williams scored 13.

“(Haynes) is a really, really young team with some good players. I think we had an edge in athleticism,” said Perrone. “This game was different from our last against them when we got out and ran … we got back to basics in this game. We’ve adjusted some things throughout the year and found some things we’ll continue to use, but here we worked on our half court trap, halfcourt zone, scoring on our secondary break, and we did a good job of it.”

St. Charles fell to Curtis in LaPlace 57-44 on February 4.

“We’re on the bubble right now, and certainly there were some games you look back on and can see that we let slip through our fingers,” said Perrone. “But we still have an opportunity to take care of business against John Curtis.”