By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

St. Charles faced Pope John Paul II for the second straight game on Thursday night in the opening round of the St. Charles WOW Classic tournament.

The end result remained constant.

After defeating PJP II 62-38 in the team’s final contest at the C.Y.O. Basketball Classic last Saturday, the Comets did it again on their home floor, 64-54 to advance to the second round.

Unlike the teams’ first meeting, though, the game was hardly over at the half. The Jaguars led 32-31 entering the third quarter.

“We didn’t come out with the intensity that we needed to,” said St. Charles coach Jonathan Hernandez. “We shook it up at halftime, and in the second half we came out and executed our gameplan.”

The Comets (7-6) did just that, outscoring the Jaguars 16-6 in the third quarter and seized control of the game.

DeMarcus Bernard led the way for St. Charles with 23 points. Vincent Rollo added 11.

St. Charles advanced to face E.D. White in the second round on Friday, who defeated Hannan to advance.

Another first round winners on Thursday was St. Thomas Aquinas, which defeated Vandebilt Catholic 68-61.

The game between the Jaguars and Comets on Saturday had a much different feel early on – St. Charles led 41-22 at halftime, and coasted to a 62-38 win at the Rummel C.Y.O. tournament site. Bernard again led the team with 24 points. Birch Matus added nine.

“Once we established a lead, we stayed on top of them and put a lot of pressure on defensively,” said Hernandez. “Our guys responded like they had to.”

One night earlier, St. Charles fell to South Lafourche at Shaw, 46-26. Turnovers hurt the Comet cause – St. Charles had 21 in the game.

South Lafourche (10-1) outscored St. Charles 31-10 in the second and third quarters to establish its lead.

“South Lafourche did nothing at all to hurt themselves,” said Hernandez. They took care of the basketball. Once they got a lead on us, I felt like a few of our guys stopped working hard.”

Rollo led the Comets with 11 points.

Last Thursday night, St. Charles fell to Shaw at Shaw, 61-56 in the C.Y.O. tournament.

The Comets led 24-18 at halftime, but got caught in Shaw’s type of game, said Hernandez, and it resulted in a lost lead.

“Shaw (2-6) pushed the tempo, made it a real up and down type of game,” said Hernandez. “We never set ourselves up to slow down the pace, and we ended up playing their game.”

Bernard led the way with 17 points. Rollo scored 13.