by RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

As St. Charles’ district opener with Lutcher loomed on Tuesday, the Comets had quite a warm-up on Saturday as it faced Hammond in an exhibition game at the Riverside Hall of Fame Classic.

The Tornados had won nine of their last 11 games entering the contest with St. Charles, and continued their momentum, downing the Comets 69-50 at Riverside.

Hammond (11-5) got off to a quick start, outscoring St. Charles (13-12) 20-8 in the first quarter, and would not trail in the game.

“I think they’re one of the better teams that we’ve played,” said St. Charles Coach Jonathan Hernandez. “We guarded them pretty well, and contested some shots that just went down for them. At the same time, we didn’t make ours, and I think that broke our confidence down to an extent.”

St. Charles was able to push back in the second quarter, cutting the Hammond lead to 7 at halftime, 31-24.

But while St. Charles stayed within striking distance, trailing by nine through the end of the third quarter, a 22-13 surge in the fourth quarter by the Tornados spelled the end of the Comets.

St. Charles’ DeMarcus Bernard scored a game-high 29 points. Vincent Rollo hit three 3-pointers to add nine, and Zach Goodwin added six.

Hernandez said that St. Charles treated the game as a scrimmage in preparation for its district schedule. He likes what he is seeing recently from his offense, and says that St. Charles’ ability to control the tempo of those district games will determine how far they can go.

“District play is live or die, win or go home,” Hernandez said. “If we can slow down the other teams, and continue to execute well, we have a decent shot.”