RAYMOND — Grace Upshaw scored 13 points for the St. Aloysius Lady Flashes on Thursday night, but their season came to an end with a 39-34 loss to Hartfield Academy in the first round of the District 3-AAA tournament at Central Hinds Academy.

Hartfield advanced to face host Central Hinds on Friday in the semifinals, and earned a spot in the MAIS Class AAA North State tournament next week at Indianola Academy.

“It was too little too late. We came out flat in the first quarter; we picked it up only a little bit in the second quarter and it was still 16-16 at halftime,” St. Al coach Douglas Curry said. “We came out flat again in the third quarter and tried to pour it all in in the fourth and we just ran out of clock.”

Michelle Howington led St. Al in rebounding with nine, followed by Elise Piazza and Kyla Goodlow with four each.

Upshaw scored 10 of her 13 points in the fourth quarter, including two 3-pointers, and hit a 3-pointer with 2:36 remaining to give St. Al a 32-29 lead. Upshaw was the only St. Al player with a field goal in the fourth quarter.

“I told them at this point in the season it’s win or go home,” Curry said. “Right before the fourth quarter I told them the game is still within reach, if you want it go get it. We got some big help from a couple of our bench players, who came in with a spark of energy.”

Hartfield, though, had the last word. It finished the game on a 9-2 run in which five of its points came from the free throw line.

Although his team lost, Curry had high praise for his players.

“Allie (Falls), again on offense and defense hustling around, flying around causing chaos for the other team. Olivia (Curtis), she controlled the post and Michelle (Howington) as always gave us a couple of threes and we needed them early,” Curry said. “We just ran out of steam.”

 

(B) Manchester 49,

St. Aloysius 47

Jay Warren scored a game-high 18 points as Manchester Academy ended St. Al’s season in the first round of the boys’ District 3-AAA tournament.

Manchester advanced to face Central Hinds Friday at 5:30 p.m., and clinched a spot in the North State tournament.

It was another nail bitter for Curry as he witnessed his boys bounce back after finishing the third quarter down 40-28.

Jaylyn Whitaker had four points and 10 rebounds for St. Al.

“It was a fight from start to finish,” Curry said. “I think we left a couple of points on the board, especially at the free throw line. To lose by two points, where’s the missing piece of the puzzle? It’s out there somewhere.”

Joshua Brown hit two 3-pointers to cut the deficit to single digits, which sparked a 7-0 run in the first 2 1/2 minutes of the fourth quarter.

“He’s been looking for his stroke for a couple of games and I just let him shoot it out and it was going in,” Curry said. “He helped on defense, caused a lot of chaos, got some turnovers, tipped balls and on offense he helped control the tempo.”

The Mavericks turned around to earn a nine point lead, 44-35, but the Flashes were able to close the gap by creating a couple of turnovers and making free throws off of a technical foul.

With a chance to win the game, Tyler Lewis was able to draw a Mavericks’ defender off-balance with a pump fake to create an open 3-point attempt, but it missed.

St. Al trailed 13-9 to start the second quarter and remained within four points of the lead with a little more than three minutes left in the game. It even tied the Mavericks at 17 with just under a minute remaining in the first half.

Manchester opened a pair of double-digit leads in the third quarter, and took a 12-point lead into the fourth.

Curry said to end the season with two close games shows signs of a positive foundation for the program for next season.

“It took them a long time to see they have the capabilities to win basketball games,” Curry said. “At least for now we know what we can work on and build that into the future.”