By JOHNNY PEPPO

Sports Editor

LAPLACE — When it comes to St. Charles and John Curtis games, the stands will undoubtedly be full.

And so it was rowdy in the Comet gym once again when the two squads met for a district 10-2A basketball match-up last Friday, splitting the pair as the boys took the late game with a steady offense in the first half and a dose of timely defense in the second.

St. Charles showed some versatility in their offensive package as Chase Fletcher and DeMarcus Bernard combined to score 32 points. The duo helped SCC off to a good start with nine points while Jonathan Bonura and Austin Martin chipped in with baskets to get off to a 14-10 lead.

In the second period, the Comets pushed that lead to nine before they would hit the locker room for halftime. Fletcher and Bernard again motored the SCC offense, posting a dozen of St. Charles’ 17 points.

&#8220Those guys were big for us,” said SCC Coach Jeff Montz. &#8220We knew with the size that [Curtis] has that we’d have to take advantage of some of our quickness. And they stepped up.”

After the break, both defenses seemed to bear down as scoring slowed to a crawl and the clock ran down to the fourth quarter.

There, Curtis made a push to erase an eight point lead and were able to pull to within one possession. But the Patriots were running out of time and the Comets were hitting their free throws. Jonathan Bonura did much of the damage, keeping SCC in the lead with five of six points from the line to preserve a 52-48 victory.

Fletcher led the Comets in scoring with 18 while Bernard trailed him with 14. Bonura also hit double digits with ten.

On the girls side in the early game, the Lady Comets found themselves trailing throughout the game, and were down by almost 30 points in the second half

The win puts St. Charles’ boys at 1-1 in district and 10-14 on the year.

The girls moved to 2-1 in 10-2A play when they lossed in the early game to the Lady Patriots.