[1/24/03]St. Aloysius coach Paul Hayden looked for a different opponent for Saturday’s Red Carpet Classic, but Wesson’s pitch won him over.

The Flashes, who have played Wesson in the last two RCBs, will again meet the Cobras in the first two games of the all-day tournament.

“Their coach told me he was disappointed we were looking for another team,” Hayden said. “They really wanted to come back.”

Tipoff is scheduled for 10 a.m., with the boys starting at 11:30.

Hayden said his team will be fortunate in that his Friday night game is at home. The early start time he figures his boys game tonight will be over about 9 p.m. could have a serious effect.

“I think both teams may start a little slow,” Hayden said. “It’s such an unusual start time, you get used to playing all the games at the same time.”

Wesson, on the other hand, will be playing at Piney Woods in southern Hinds County tonight.

“At least we don’t have to play the 9 a.m. game,” said Wesson coach Jemmye Ann Helms, a former Mississippi State player, 1992-97, not realizing she was playing the first game.

Start times shouldn’t matter for the Lady Flashes, who are riding a three-game winning streak into the RCB.

St. Al beat Greenville-St. Joe on Tuesday and is scheduled to play Forest, La., tonight. Forest beat St. Al earlier this season.

“We are starting to play much better,” Hayden said.

Despite the record St. Al is 4-12 on the season Hayden believes that this matchup is suited nicely for his team.

“We match up pretty well with them,” Hayden said. “We’ve seen them before and know what they can do.

“We are so young and have a completely different look than I expected coming into this season,” Hayden said.

Helms’ team carries a 4-13 record, but it is one more win than the school had in the combined two previous seasons.

“Defensively we play hard, but on offense we are not blessed with shooters,” Helms said. “It’s hard for us to score points.”

On the boys side, the Flashes are coming off a win over Greenville-St. Joe and enter the RCB with a 5-11 record.

Jason Brown will lead the Flashes. He is coming off one of his best performances of the season with a 24-point effort. His 13 in the fourth quarter helped the Flashes hold off a late St. Joe rally and notch their third straight win.

The boys team has yet to see Wesson this season. The girls teams met in a tournament in December, but the boys did not play the Cobras that time around.

Attempts to reach Wesson coaches were unsuccessful.