[01/31/01] Danielle Klaus gave herself one heck of a birthday present Tuesday night.

The St. Aloysius junior celebrated by scoring a career-high 22 points and also grabbed 12 rebounds to lead the Lady Flashes to a 65-46 win over Madison-St. Joseph.

“It’s wonderful. I wish it was my birthday everyday,” said a smiling Klaus, who scored 12 of her points from the free-throw line and was 5-for-8 from the field.

St. Al coach Paul Hayden agreed.

“I think that’s a good birthday present to herself, and to me too,” he said with a laugh.

Kristen Patrick added 18 points and nine assists for St. Al (12-10, 5-6 Division 8-1A), which was 24-for-40 from the free-throw line. Mollie Richards had 10 points and 10 rebounds and Jen Barnes had 11 points.

Erica Baldi led Madison-St. Joe with 11 points, but was one of four Lady Bruins who fouled out. Meagan Robinson added 10 points and Mandy Andrews came off the bench to score eight points and grab 11 rebounds.

Madison (3-20, 1-6), which committed 21 turnovers in the first half, erased a 26-18 halftime deficit with an 11-1 run to start the third quarter.

Trailing by a basket, 29-27, with 4:36 to play in the quarter, Hayden called a timeout and ripped his team, yelling at them before they had even reached the bench.

The Lady Flashesresponded with a 16-2 run to take a 43-31 lead after three periods and never looked back. St. Al outscored Madison 38-17 over the last 12 1/2 minutes of the game and was never threatened again.

“It pumped us up,” Klaus said of Hayden’s tirade during the timeout. “When he called us over, we were really slacking. We needed to be pumped up.”

(B) M-St. Joe 76, St. Al 59

Madison-St. Joe used an 8-0 run late in the third quarter and a hot start to the fourth to propel it to the division win over the struggling Flashes.

“I’m not one who enjoys moral victories, but we’ve got to take that one,” Hayden said. “They beat us up and down the court the first two times we played them.”

Justin Williams came off the bench to lead St. Al with 16 points, while Lee Wiles added 15, Clay Simmons had 11 and Ryan Hearn had eight.

Robert Triplett Led Madison (14-8, 8-2 Division 8-1A) with a game-high 24 points and 10 rebounds. Three of his baskets came after following his own missed jumpers in the third quarter and helped the Bruins turn an eight-point halftime lead into a 41-27 advantage with just under six minutes to play in the third quarter.

St. Al (6-16, 2-6) rallied, cutting it to six points with about three minutes left in the period. But Madison used the 8-0 run over the stretch of the quarter to push the lead back to 53-39.

“The guys just went back to fundamentals,” Madison coach Keith Barnes said. “We had been playing a lot of individual games, and it just wasn’t happening for us. We went back to the fundamentals and it got us back in the game.”

Victor Segers hit a pair of free throws with four seconds left in the quarter to cut it to 53-41, but Madison hit six of its first seven shots in the the fourth quarter to keep the Flashes at bay.

St. Al was outrebounded, 35-20.

“We made some mistakes and they capitalized on them, and we didn’t capitalize on their mistakes,” Hayden said.