By RYAN ARENA
Sports Editor

Dominant scoring by Brooke Becker and a team wide knack for closing out games – that’s what led St. Charles to 13 pre-district victories. That’s what the Comets hope will lead to a playoff berth and perhaps even the District 9-3A title.

At least after one district contest, St. Charles seems to have memorized the script.

Becker scored 41 points and SCC outscored Port Allen 21-10 in the fourth quarter to capture a 59-46 win in LaPlace on Tuesday night.

“I feel like the amount of games we’ve played against some of the state’s tougher competition has made a huge difference,” said St. Charles Coach Nolan Louque. “We got a chance to play a bunch of 5A schools, and that’s left us battle tested.”

A season ago, Port Allen (2-12) swept the Comets (14-10) in district play en route to a second place finish, a major reason that SCC missed the postseason.

But while the Comets only carried a 38-36 lead into the fourth quarter, it wasn’t long before St. Charles pushed its lead into double digits.

“It goes back to the girls simply having pride in themselves, their school, and their teammates,” Louque said. “We’ve won the majority of our close ones. They make the effort at practice to work longer and harder than anyone, and that goes a long way toward their conditioning in these fourth quarters.”

Becker continued what’s been a career year in her senior campaign, topping the 40-point mark for the third time this season.

“What’s so special about Brooke, she’s scoring 40 points while also being a team player. She’s letting the game come to her,” Louque says. “She does it within our offense. And when she’s getting others involved and our younger kids are scoring points, then that prevents the defense from just keying on her.”

To close out Port Allen, Becker combined with Dominique DiCarlo and Kacie Braud to shoot 7-for-8 at the foul line in the last two minutes.

“Everyone’s playing with confidence right now,” Louque said.

Braud finished with six points. DiCarlo added five.

Catherine Harrell led Port Allen with 19.