When St. Charles Catholic hosts De La Salle in a District 10-3A matchup Tuesday in Laplace that will be live streamed by VSNLouisiana.com, it will be a game of contrasting styles.
“When we play St. Charles, it will be a battle of wills. They will want to be patient. They have (Austin Reed), who is a very good shooter. They play very much as a team. They will want to be deliberate. They will want to be patient. We will want to speed the game up and get out into transition,” said De La Salle coach Paul Kelly.
“We are a pretty good team, but unfortunately, we haven’t proven ourselves as good as the team in our district,” St. Charles coach Kemper Todd said. “All the teams in our district play a very athletic style, one that involves full-court pressure and they try to score either off of turnovers or in transition. That’s every team in our district.
“Our guys just aren’t as athletic. That’s not an insult; it’s just what it is. We have to play a game of handling the basketball, of working and grinding out until we get a really good shot. We have to fight on the boards because of our height differential. Our success, or lack thereof, rests on how well we can do those things.”
Tip-off is set for approximately 7 p.m. with Drew Robison handling the play-by-play call with color commentary by Lonn Ellzey.
De La Salle is second in district play with a 4-2 record, trailing only Donaldsonville, which is 5-2 in league play. The Cavaliers are 14-10 overall.
Double-figure scorers for the Cavaliers include a pair of juniors, Jalen Ned and John Kelly.
“John is our most accurate threat from the 3-point line. Jalen Ned is probably our best athlete,” said Kelly.
Handling the ball for De La Salle is point guard Abiram Frye, another junior.
“He pushes the ball up the court,” Kelly said of Frye. “The ball is very often in his hands and he does a good job of driving it hard to the goal and creating problems for the defense. We try to play fast. We try to play up-tempo.”
The lone senior starter for De La Salle is 6-foot-6 center Gerald Matthews, a left-hander.
“He really has improved over the course of the year. He’s a good very defender and very good rebounder. He’s getting better around the basket,” Kelly said.
St. Charles Catholic is 1-5 in district action and 12-13 overall.
Pacing the Comets is senior Jason Bosco. Bosco is averaging 17.1 points, five rebounds and two assists.
Christian Montz, a forward, is averaging 12.4 points and 6.1 rebounds for St. Charles.
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