By RYAN ARENA

L’Observateur

NEW ORLEANS – Down by 10 with three minutes left to play, St. Charles was thought to be finished at the hands of McGehee.

Thought by everyone, perhaps, but the Comets.

SCC turned up the heat and as a result left New Orleans with a District 9-2A victory over the Hawks, 37-36.

“That’s a great way to start district. We showed a lot of fight,” said SCC coach Kelly Cupit. “WE hustled, and then we finally made some shots.”

SCC (7-10, 1-0) notched three key turnovers and made a number of stops to give itself a chance to come back. The Comets drew within one on Dominique DiCarlo’s technical free throw, then took the lead when Emily Picciola made a go-ahead basket with 30 seconds left.

McGehee had a chance to tie or take the lead late, but missed its free throws. SCC was fouled with 0.5 seconds left, and missed the front end of a one-and-one, allowing the clock to expire.

“We cleaned things up defensively (from earlier in the game,” said Cupit. “We made some clutch steals, and on offense we were patient. We got our hot hands the ball.”

Those hot hands were Picciola, DiCarlo, and Heather Orillion. Picciola scored 13 points to go with seven assists and six rebounds. DiCarlo scored nine points and was a terror defensively with seven steals. Orillion added 10 points. Kacie Braud grabbed 10 rebounds.

Making the comeback even more impressive was that with three minutes left, four Comets had four fouls.

“To play the kind of defense that we did, knowing that one mistake means your night is over, I thought we did a very good job,” said Cupit.