One of the biggest concerns St. Aloysius coach Delvin Thompson had going into Wednesday’s game with Sebastopol was falling behind early.

It turns out Thompson’s fears were well-founded.

Sebastopol jumped out to a 26-point lead by the end of the first quarter and had no trouble disposing of St. Al, 54-16, in the first round of the girls Class 1A state tournament.

The game was played in mid-afternoon, two days after it was postponed because of the ice storm that raked Central Mississippi this week. Thompson said he felt the delay hurt his team, but wasn’t the biggest factor in the lopsided loss.

“It was an awful week. I don’t think we were focused, but Sebastopol played well,” Thompson said.

Abby Winstead led Sebastopol’s balanced effort with 12 points. The Bobcats (22-3) advanced to play either Nanih Waiya or Lumberton on Friday.

Avery Parman led St. Al with six points, while Grace Upshaw had five. Upshaw’s three-point play late in the first quarter marked the only points the Lady Flashes scored in the opening period. They trailed 29-3 when the buzzer sounded, and 39-9 at halftime.

“We couldn’t put the ball in the basket for some reason,” Thompson said. “There’s no coming back from that. It was one of those things. Most of the year we started slow and came back.”

St. Al lost its last three games after beating the Mississippi School for the Deaf to advance out of the division tournament for the first time since 2007.

Although it was an unpleasant ending to the season, Thompson said the ride there made it a successful year.

“It was a good step,” he said. “We hadn’t made the playoffs since 2007. I told them they should be proud of themselves. To make the playoffs is a good day.”

St. Al’s boys teams plays at Durant tonight at 6 in the state tournament.