By RYAN ARENA

Sports Editor

Through all of St. Charles’ struggles this season, SCC coach Chris Perrone never lost faith in his team’s ability or potential.

On Friday, the Comets rewarded that faith with a true statement victory.

The Comets left the gym of No. 4 ranked Port Allen with a 54-52 victory in overtime, putting the Comets right back in the thick of the District 9-3A race.

“It’s definitely a big win for us,” said Perrone. “We went out and proved that we can play. It does make me wonder about the beginning of the year, that we maybe should have won a lot of those games.

“But like I tell the guys, you can’t go back and change things. We’re ready to move forward, and they’re really buying in.”

Port Allen (17-4), the undefeated District 9-3A champion last season, dropped to No. 6 in this week’s LSWA Class 3A poll after the loss.

St. Charles (8-14, 2-1) had to sweat out the final seconds of its victory. The Comets led by two with four seconds left in the game when Port Allen inbounded the ball in the backcourt. The Pelicans’ Austin Allen advanced the ball and launched a prayer — that was almost answered — from halfcourt. The ball rattled around the rim before popping out.

“It was halfway down,” said Perrone. “It was a battle to say the very least.”

Jesse Coleman’s two free throws in overtime proved to be the deciding points.

The Comets got balanced scoring across the board. Zach Goodwin led the way with 12 points. Birch Matus scored 11 points. Gabe Corchiani added 10, while DeMarcus Bernard scored eight and Victor Gordon netted six.

Tyler Washington scored a game-high 26 to lead Port Allen.

St. Charles led 29-23 at halftime, and 39-31 after three quarters.

“We just ran our offense, and handled the press really well,” said Perrone. “We got them for a few long balls over the top, maybe five or six times, which was definitely a plus.”

But in the fourth quarter, the Pelicans rallied to take the lead by outscoring St. Charles 17-9 in the final period.

“They had a sense of urgency to them. We had done a nice job on the boards until that point,” Perrone said. “They started really crashing the boards, and we gave them the baseline too many times. It was a problem, but at the same time, our guys showed enough resolve to fight through it.”

Contrarily, the Comets excelled at getting to the foul line in the fourth quarter, and made seven-of-11 attempts to keep Port Allen from taking the lead.

“That’s how you give yourself a chance to win games like this,” said Perrone.