[2/15/03]St. Aloysius tried to match West Lincoln shot-for-shot Friday night. The way the Bears were shooting, St. Al would have had more luck trying to teach pigs to fly.

West Lincoln hit nine 3-pointers and shot an astounding 71 percent in the first half while building a 26-point lead, then cruised to an 85-52 win in the Division 7-1A tournament championship game.

Luke Lofton had 25 points, Tyler Smith had 23, and Brooks Smith scored all of his 21 points on seven 3-pointers as West Lincoln (15-8) shot 68 percent for the game.

Anthony Rector led St. Al (11-14) with 14 points, and Andy Gough hit three 3-pointers to finish with nine points.

“It didn’t seem like they were ever going to miss. It was real frustrating to play against that,” said St. Al center Kyle Richards, who had 12 points and a team-high five rebounds.

Despite the loss, the Flashes will still move on to play in a South State satellite game on Tuesday. St. Al will travel to either Brooks, located in Benoit, or McAdams.

“Our heads are still up. It all starts over, and we get another chance,” Richards said.

The Flashes stood little chance against West Lincoln’s onslaught, however.

Brooks Smith started the game with a 3-pointer, then added two more in the first 4 1/2 minutes as the Bears jumped out to a 16-4 lead.

St. Al bounced back and chipped away at the deficit, however. Pounding the ball inside, the Flashes went on a 9-2 run near the end of the first quarter that cut it to 25-16 by the end of the period.

The comeback was short-lived. Brooks Smith hit another 3-pointer before the end of the quarter, and West Lincoln started the second quarter with an 8-2 run, capped by Tyler Smith’s 3-pointer, to push the lead back to 33-18 with 6:15 to play in the first half.

St. Al then tried to match shots with the Bears, and failed miserably. As the Flashes went 1-for-5 from 3-point range in the second quarter and just 4-for-11 from the field in all West Lincoln grabbed the rebounds and hit nearly every shot it took.

The Bears were 11-for-14 from the field in the second quarter, and finished the half on a 17-2 run over the last 4:32.

“We got frustrated, and again it comes down to a thing where we want to get it all back in one trip,” St. Al coach Paul Hayden said. “(It’s) just not thinking. Inexperience. Our confidence had been shot because of how well they shot the ball, and I think a sense of panic set in because of it, too.”

St. Al never got closer than 26 points in the second half, although West Lincoln never led by more than the final 33-point margin.

The Flashes did play well in spots they shot 50 percent from the floor in the first half, and a respectable 44 percent for the game, and only had 17 turnovers but were simply overwhelmed by the Bears’ powerful long-range attack.

“St. Al played hard, but it was one of those nights when everything we threw up went in,” West Lincoln coach Lane Young said. “That’s the best we’ve played this year. I thought we rebounded well, and we shot the ball extremely well.”