St. Aloysius senior Kyle Richards elevates over the outstretched arms of Mississippi School for the Deaf’s C.J. Durham during the Flashes’ 76-70 win on Thursday. (Jenny Sevcik The Vicksburg Post)

[2/13/04]Thursday night was a memorable one for St. Aloysius basketball team.

The Flashes bid farewell to their seniors before their final home game. Those players later responded with a crucial 76-70 win over Mississippi School for the Deaf.

“We finally beat one of the teams that’s considered an elite team in our district,” St. Al coach Paul Hayden said. “MSD’s got, top to bottom, some of the better athletes in our district.”

With the victory, St. Al (10-15, 8-4 Region 7-1A) moves into a third-place tie with MSD (19-5, 8-4) behind Bogue Chitto and West Lincoln in the division. By rule, the team with the better head-to-head point differential would claim the No. 3 seed, but St. Al and MSD have each defeated each other by six points.

The Flashes will find out Saturday where they will be placed in the Region Tournament, which begins Tuesday in Natchez.

“This was big for our momentum because we’d been getting blown out in our last couple of games,” St. Al’s Anthony Rector said. “This is big going into the playoffs. We needed this bad to get our confidence back up.”

Three seniors had monster nights for St. Al. Drew Mazzanti notched a triple-double with 18 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists, Rector added 19 points and 10 assists, and Kyle Richards had a game-high 25 points and nine rebounds.

“It’s always great to have a triple-double, but we’re just glad we won our last home game in front of everybody,” Mazzanti said.

MSD jumped out to a 21-11 lead after the first quarter and stretched the lead to 15 points midway through the second.

“We just didn’t look like we really wanted to play, didn’t look like we really wanted to come out here and win it,” said Richards, who wore No. 10 for the game in honor of his sister Mollie. “They had beaten us once during the season, and I think we didn’t think we could beat them.”

Just when it seemed as if the Flashes would break, they managed to put together a small run to enter the half down 37-29. During the break, Hayden challenged his seniors to step up and play to win.

“I could see in their faces in the locker room to look at each other and say, We are not going to lose this game,'” Hayden said. “And they did, they pulled together.”

After an 11-of-27 first half, the Flashes shot a gaudy 19-of-22 (86 percent) after the break.

Rector hit a layup and a free throw with 3 minutes remaining in third quarter to give St. Al its first lead of the game, 48-47. The Flashes increased that to eight points with 3 minutes left in the fourth quarter before MSD made a push to come back.

C.J. Durham, who led the Bulldogs with 21 points, made consecutive baskets to cut the lead to 67-63 with just under 2 minutes to play.

Paul Biggs and Brandon Miner later added back-to-back baskets to trim it to 69-67. But despite missing some critical free throws, the Flashes were able to hang on.

“We made a lot of mistakes, and we weren’t patient,” said MSD’s Ro’Derrick Brown, a Vicksburg resident who finished with 19 points. “We really don’t like losing.”

(G) MSD 53, St. Aloysius 49

A late rally by the Lady Bulldogs overwhelmed the Lady Flashes. St. Al led 48-38 with 4:30 left, but MSD ended the game on a 15-1 run.

Disheka Bland scored a game-high 25 points, and Angela Scott added 14 points and 19 rebounds for MSD (18-7, 7-5), which moves into third place in the region.

The Lady Flashes (11-14, 5-7) have lost three straight and fall to the fifth seed in the region tournament.

Laura Weeks led St. Al with 13 points, Sarah Kerut added 12 and LaJuana Thomas had 11.