Just nine days after playing a double overtime thriller for third place in the blue bracket of the Kankakee Holiday Tournament, the St. Anne and Clifton Central boys basketball teams met at St. Anne’s Jack Sikma Court on Tuesday, exchanging a third-place tournament trophy for pivotal standing ground in the River Valley Conference.

While the game was settled in regulation this time, the finish was perhaps just as nail-biting, with the Comets getting a couple of chances to tie the game in the closing moments before the host Cardinals held on for a thrilling 61-56 win.

“We’re just two good teams,” said St. Anne senior guard Grant Pomaranski, who had a game-high 18 points. “We know each other, we play each other all the time and know each others’ weaknesses.”

The Cardinals (10-5, 4-0 RVC) made it four wins in their last five games while the Comets (10-5, 3-2) lost their third straight, all of which they at least tied in the second half after falling in early holes.

That hole was 18-4 on Tuesday night after Brandon Schoth and Pomaranski buried back-to-back 3-pointers with just over two minutes left in the first quarter, but the Comets quickly closed the gap with a 9-2 run, trailing 20-13 after a quarter and 33-27 after a half.

While the slow starts aren’t exactly encouraging for Comets head coach Brandon Schoon, their ability to fight right back couldn’t encourage the first-year head coach more. Conner Unger’s three-point play off an offensive rebound knotted things at 42-42 in the waning moments of the third.

“It says a lot about our kids and that’s what I preached to them,” Schoon said. “We’re a young varsity team and don’t have a lot of experience at the varsity level.

“For them to battle back like that and have that composure is awesome to see,” he added. “At some points we have five juniors out there and keep battling away. Hopefully we can get to that point where we don’t have to battle back.”

As soon as the Comets tied it up, the Cardinals ended the third and started the fourth on a 7-0 run when Jason Bleyle buried a 3-pointer two minutes into the final quarter.

After Bleyle’s 1-for-7 start from deep, the confidence he had to take that eighth triple was the same confidence his teammates and coaches had.

“I always have confidence in him,” Pomaranski said. “Our whole team does. Coach (Rick Schoon) never tells us not to shoot. He always gives us the green light.”

Led by Derek Meier (17 points, four assists, three rebounds) and Jake Thompson (six points, 15 rebounds), the Comets punched back again, pulling back to a one-possession game on a Kaden Neveu 3-pointer that made it 57-56 with 23 seconds left.

After freshman Raleigh Hayes laid one in with 14.7 ticks on the clock, the Comets got a pair of game-tying looks – senior standout Blake Chandler’s look from the right wing and Meier’s look from the left wing off a Thompson board. But senior Brigham Hayes grabbed a long rebound off Meier’s miss and hit the ensuing free throws with 0.4 seconds left to preserve the win.

Whether it’s his core of three and four-year players like Pomaranski, Matthew Langellier (10 points) Bleyle (10 points) or Schoth (eight points) or complementary pieces like the Hayes brothers, Rick Schoon knows he can rely on whoever is on the floor.

“That’s the nice thing,” Rick Schoon said. “I have trust in whoever has the ball in their hands at the end of the game.”

And with an abundance of experience, the hall-of-fame coach knows that the next couple months could be quite a ride.

“That experience on the court saves me from having to make adjustments because they know what to do on the court,” Rick Schoon said. “They play so well together, they share the ball, they trust each other.

“Last time I checked our stats we didn’t have one kid averaging 10 points a game, but we had five of them averaging nine,” he added. “What more can you ask for?”