By GEORGE MAHL Sports Editor

St. James – The St. Charles Catholic Comets dug themselves into a deep hole heading into the final period against St. James and could not climb out of it. A fast-tempo by the Wildcats helped them pick up a 71-62 victory over St. Charles Catholic Tuesday night in the 10-3A district opener.

The Wildcats were led by Nick Narcisse, who finished with 16 points. St. Charles Catholic Freshman Jonathan Bonura led all scorers with 17 points.

Things got off to a rough start for the Comets. St. James built a 9-0 lead in the first quarter. Narcisse scored the first seven of his team’s nine points. His turnaround jumper gave them an 11-1 lead with 4:36 left to play in the first period.

However, the Comets got a wake up call and went on a 7-0 sprint to cut the lead to 11-8 with 3:16 left in the first quarter. The run ended when Narcisse made a jumper to give them a 13-8 lead with 3:08 left in the first quarter.

St. James held a 17-15 lead at the end of the first quarter. Two foul shots by Bonura to start the second quarter tied the game for the first time, 17-17.

In addition, the Comets took its first lead of the game when Bonura drained a 3-point-shot to give them a 20-17 lead with 6:15 left until halftime. The majority of the second period, neither St. Charles Catholic nor St. James held a commanding lead throughout. With the Comets leading 33-31, the Wildcats went on to outscore 8-0 during the final two minutes before halftime.

St. James held a 39-31 lead at halftime.

The third period saw the Wildcats outscore the Comets 18-8.

The fourth quarter saw the biggest rally of the game for the Comets.

Facing a 63-42 deficit with 6:23 to play in the game, St. Charles Catholic went on a 12-0 run to cut the lead to 63-54 with 3:40 to play. Michael Troglen scored six points during the run.

The closest the Comets got in the final period was when Michael Bowen hit a three-pointer to cut the lead to seven with 18 seconds left.