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LAPLACE — Holding any team to 24 points in a full basketball game is an accomplishment, according to St. Charles Catholic head coach Jeff Montz. That’s precisely what the Comets did when they hosted Ascension Episcopal Friday night in the regional round of the Division III boys basketball playoffs.

St. Charles Catholic earned a 38-24 win in what proved to be a slow-paced ball game. Montz is expecting Thursday’s quarterfinal round against Lafayette Christian to be a different story. Ranked No. 2 in the division, the Knights boast a 23-9 season record.

St. Charles Catholic entered the playoffs ranked No. 7. Tip-off will be at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Lafayette.

“Lafayette Christian is pretty well-rounded. We’re going to need a team effort to beat them,” Montz said. “I’m anticipating a team that’s going to want to do almost the opposite (of Ascension Episcopal). They are going to want to get the ball and push the ball down the floor, shoot threes and kind of make it a fast-paced game. We’re going to try to actually slow them down.”

If the Comets can set and accomplish goals like they did in the regional round, they stand a good chance.

St. Charles Catholic jumped out to an early 5-0 lead against the Blue Gators Friday night. From there, it went back-and-forth, and there were quite a few possessions where no one scored.

“They stayed in the zone and kind of slowed the pace down, but we were ahead, so we were content to try to work until we got good shots,” Montz said.

The Comets added two points and led 7-5 at the end of the first. The guys continued to outscore the opposition through the second. Toward the end of the quarter, Owen Bourgeois got fouled and made two free throws, allowing St. Charles Catholic to enter halftime up by 10.

At halftime, the game plan was simple: make a run of 10 points to create a 20-point cushion and hold on for the win. They almost reached that goal before the end of the third, when the Comets’ lead increased to 16 points.

Senior Owen Bourgeois made six free throws in the fourth quarter. Seniors Christian Montz and Reggie Hackett each added a free throw, and the only field goal in the fourth quarter was courtesy of Cameron Campbell.

The final score was 38-24. Bourgeois and Montz led in scoring with 13 points each, and no one from Ascension Episcopal scored in the double digits.

Montz said assistant coach Zach Weber did an excellent job crafting the game plan.

“We have goals that we set, and we were pretty much able to reach all of our goals,” Montz said. “I’m extremely proud of the way our guys have hung together through this season and how far we’ve gotten. We would like to continue that in Lafayette, one step at a time.”