MIZE – Calling all referees, please come to Mize.

St. Aloysius’ Class 1A South State satellite game with Mize was delayed nearly an hour Monday night when two of the three officials scheduled to work the game failed to show up.

Finally, led by a police escort, a substitute official arrived and let Mize get on with the process of beating St. Al 71-46.

“I had never seen anything like this,” said former Warren Central coach Barney Finch, who recently retired from Mize. “I have had them not show up for a junior high game, but never a playoff game.”

Sarah Kerut scored 20 points for St. Al, which finished its season with a 13-16 record. Coach Drew McBrayer said he was proud of the way his team improved in the second half of the season.

“We didn’t play well tonight, but in the last two months, we came a long way. We became a pretty good basketball team,” McBrayer said.

The Lady Flashes almost had to turn around and make the trip to Mize again today – which would have created another set of problems, considering the St. Al boys are scheduled to play a satellite game at Dexter tonight in Tylertown.

A frantic set of phone calls failed to turn up the missing officials and, had it not been for a Class 3A playoff game being played at Raleigh, some 15 miles north of Mize, the game probably would have been postponed.

Southeast Lauderdale was leading Raleigh by 30 points, so neither of those coaches objected to allowing one of their three officials to leave in order to call the game at Mize.

Led by a Smith County deputy, the extra official made the trek and, 52 minutes after its scheduled start, Mize and St. Al tipped off in front of some relieved fans.

Mize didn’t waste any time building a lead on the Lady Flashes.

St. Al took a 2-0 lead before Mize answered with a 19-4 surge, and the Lady Bulldogs led by as many as 16 in the second quarter. Kerut scored seven in the second quarter to keep St. Al within 11 at the half at 32-21.

St. Al closed to within seven on four occassions in the third quarter, the last coming at 42-35 following a basket by Ellen McCaa.

Mize, though, went on an 8-0 run to go back up 15. The fourth quarter saw the quicker Lady Bulldogs pull away for the 25-point victory.

“You just can’t commit turnovers in a game like this,” said McBrayer, in his first season as the head coach at St. Al. “We jumped in our (half-court) trap and they got two easy layups. Our energy was better to start the second half and we got some steals to make a game of it.”

Mize (23-6) got 20 points from Anna Volez and 17 from Rosemary Green. Catilyn Bryant had 13 for the Lady Bulldogs, who advanced to the eight-team South State 1A Tournament.

Sara Burrell dropped in eight points and Elizabeth Mazzanti scored seven for St. Al.