St. Al takes two from Cathedral

Published 12:00 am Friday, January 28, 2005

St. Aloysius’ Sara Burrell fights a Cathedral defender to put up a shot in the Lady Flashes’ 36-30 win on Friday. (MEREDITH SPENCER The Vicksburg Post)

[1/22/05] With a minute to play in the first half Friday night, St. Aloysius and Cathedral seemed to be on a collision course with history.

The two Catholic school rivals had combined for just 12 points so far, and were displaying the kind of shooting prowess that would make the most veteran bricklayer green with envy.

Email newsletter signup

Sign up for The Vicksburg Post's free newsletters

Check which newsletters you would like to receive
  • Vicksburg News: Sent daily at 5 am
  • Vicksburg Sports: Sent daily at 10 am
  • Vicksburg Living: Sent on 15th of each month

The second half turned out to be more suspenseful for the outcome of the game, rather than any records for futility, and St. Al came through the shower of bricks and turnovers to claim a 36-30 victory.

It was St. Al’s fourth straight Region 7-1A win, putting the Lady Flashes (9-9, 4-2) into second place.

“The girls have come a long way, but they’ve come a long way on the defensive end of the floor. At the beginning of the year, it wasn’t that they couldn’t play defense. They just didn’t know how to play defense,” first-year St. Al coach Drew McBrayer said. “We can’t go out and score 65 or 70 points and win. When we can keep it low, in the half-court game, we can manage it better.”

Neither team managed anything well in the first half Friday.

The game was tied 4-4 at the end of one quarter, and 6-6 with just over a minute to play in the second. Cathedral (3-16, 0-8) missed its first nine free throws, while St. Al shot 25 percent from the field and committed 15 turnovers in the first half.

Cathedral finally put together a run in the last minute of the half, getting a pair of layups and a 3-pointer from Mattie Smith to take a 13-8 lead into the locker room.

“It was awful,” Cathedral coach Kathy Graning said. “We missed I don’t know how many free throws and easy ones under the basket. That might be all we do for the next two days, is practice those.”

Things improved in the second half, at least for St. Al.

The Lady Flashes outscored Cathedral 14-4 in the third period, and Sarah Kerut scored six straight points in the last two minutes to give St. Al a 22-17 lead.

Cathedral rallied in the fourth quarter to cut the deficit to one on two occasions, but never regained the lead for more than a few seconds.

Elizabeth Mazzanti’s layup and 3-pointer with 3 minutes to play put the Lady Flashes ahead for good, 29-26, and they sealed the game at the free throw line.

Kerut led St. Al with 17 points, Sara Burrell grabbed eight rebounds and Bonney Neill had nine boards. Smith had 11 points for Cathedral, and Kristian Dobard had eight points, eight rebounds and five steals.

(B) St. Al 50, Cathedral 46

St. Al woke up from its third-quarter slumber just in time to salvage a win against archrival Cathedral.

The Flashes were held scoreless for the first seven minutes of the second half, then carried a 6-0 run into the fourth quarter and beat the Green Wave for the second time this season. The two wins account for two-thirds of St. Al’s (3-15, 3-3) total for the year

Chase Smith led St. Al with 26 points, and J.R. Burnett had eight points and 13 rebounds. Matthew Hall had 10 points and nine rebounds and Clay Pennington finished with 11 points for the Green Wave.

Matt Goss had 18 points and nine rebounds for Cathedral (7-11, 3-4), including a pair of 3-pointers in the first minute of the second half. The treys erased a three-point halftime deficit and sparked a 13-0 run that gave Cathedral a 36-26 lead late in the third quarter.

St. Al finally scored late in the period, on a pair of free throws by Chris Johnson with 48.8 seconds to play. Marsh Willis added two more free throws and Smith hit a layup at the buzzer to cut it to 36-32.

“No doubt, it gave us momentum going into the fourth quarter,” McBrayer said. “That was the first time I’ve seen the team really fired up like that.”

St. Al regained the lead with about three minutes to play and hung on despite poor free throw shooting down the stretch. The Flashes went 1-for-4 from the line in the final minute, including the front end of two one-and-ones.

The misfires gave Cathedral a final chance to tie the game, but Goss’ 3-pointer was short with 1.7 seconds to go. Burnett hit one of two free throws to make it 50-46 and ice the game.

(G) PCA 37, Rebul 36

Annie Beaugh hit two free throws with 12.2 seconds left to break a 35-35 tie, and Porters Chapel won the District 4-A championship. Down two, Rebul had four free throws in the final seconds but only made one.

PCA (18-7, 11-1) got 17 points from Beaugh in the win, which assures it of a spot in the North Central State tournament. The Lady Eagles trailed 27-26 after three quarters but outscored Rebul 11-8 in the final period.

(B) PCA 41, Rebul 32

Porters Chapel placed three players in double figures to beat Rebul in the regular season finale.

PCA (11-11, 6-6) was led by Hayden Hales with 14 points. Dan Ivey added 13 followed by Dean Hill with 11.

Rebul was led by Jay Bell with 15.