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LAPLACE – The No. 5 St. Charles Catholic Lady Comets will face a big challenge when they travel to take on the No. 4 Northlake Christian Wolverines Thursday night in the quarterfinal round of the Division III girls basketball playoffs.

The Wolverines are similar to the feisty St. Charles Catholic team and emphasize a stifling defense. They are led by senior guard Kyren Whittington and forward Natalie Newberry who combined for 15 steals in their first-round win over Ascension Episcopal. Whittington also led the Wolverines with 27 points and eight rebounds in the game. The Northlake Christian defense also held Ascension Christian to only 14 points.

It should be a great contest, as St. Charles Catholic also plays great defense and held their first-round opponent to only 14 points in their 48-14 victory over Louise McGehee.

Playing tough defense fuels the offense, according to SCC head coach Dawn Gaubert. She said the Lady Comets have a mentality of always sticking together, and teamwork will be essential to taking down Northlake Christian’s skilled senior duo.

“We have such awesome girls on the defense who are good at stealing and putting the pressure on the other team,” Gaubert said. “Our girls play together always. The girls on the bench cheer the starters on. When we start getting ahead, we put our young ones in, and the starters cheer them on.”

St. Charles Catholic has its own skilled senior duo in Kelly Campbell and Mallory Fernandez. The seniors are respected leaders who form the backbone of the team. Younger starters Kaitlyn Abair, Mya Brown and Alyssa Hooge feed off of their energy.

“All three of these girls work so hard with our two seniors,” Gaubert said. “Every one of our starters know what to expect of each other.”

Gaubert said the girls form a very focused team, and they would love for fans to come out and support them in the quarterfinal round.

Tip-off is at 6 p.m. Thursday at Northlake Christian School in Covington.

The winner will move on to the semi-finals of the Division III state basketball playoffs to play the winner of this week’s St. Thomas Aquinas/St. Mary’s Academy game.