BY DAVID FOLSE II

Sports Editor

It’s a whole new season for the Comets of St. Charles Catholic.

After a less than impressive pre-district run, St. Charles Catholic opened district play with a solid 58-50 win over rival St. James.

Andrew Coleman led the Comets with 16 points and Jarvis Sanders had 12. Michael Troglen also had 11 points and Casey Robottom had 10.

SCC head coach Jeff Montz said he was excited that his team was able to open up district play with a victory.

“It’s only the first one, but it does feel good to get off to a good start,” Montz said. “We limited our turnovers and we had good ball movement and we executed our game plan well. I was excited to come away with the victory.”

Montz said he was also happy with his team’s balanced scoring effort.

“Whoever has to step up can step up and if the scoring ends up as balanced as it did against St. James, we’ll take that too,” Montz said. “The big thing is if we play together and focus on what our objectives are and execute them, we have a chance.

Against the Wildcats free throw shooting turned out to be the story of the game and the Comets shot well from the charity stripe.

“I think the key to the game was we were able to make our free throws in the fourth quarter,” Montz said. “I think we shot 18-22 from the line and we protected the basketball well too.”

Ready for a solid district run, Montz said he hopes his team will learn from their mistakes in pre-district play.

“Pre-district is preparation for district play,” Montz said. “Other than games with teams in your classification, nothing in pre-district really counts into the playoff mix.”

“We always use that as a pre-season and a learning tool. You try to win games but the main thing is you try to get ready for district play. Hopefully it will pay off for us this year.”