St. Aloysius had quite a send off for Chris Baer Saturday night.

The senior forward was introduced as the team’s captain, and then after the 68-36 romp over Bogue Chitto, he was presented with a large picture-filled frame of his highlights from football and basketball in a Flashes uniform.

Baer was one of three student athletes from Brother Martin High School in New Orleans who transferred to St. Al after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Big Easy. He is going back with his dad to New Orleans on Thursday and will likely re-enroll at Brother Martin when the school opens on Jan. 17.

&#8220St. Al means everything to me,” said the quiet-spoken Baer, who was a bit taken aback by all the hoopla.

&#8220This is crazy. I’m going to miss these guys a lot,” he said.

In 12 games with the Flashes, Baer helped the club to a 10-2 record and gave them a big leg up in the Division 7-1A race with a 3-0 start following Saturday’s romp over the Bobcats.

But the plan now is for Baer to suit up for whatever make-shift team Brother Martin, the two-time defending Louisiana Class 5A state champions, can put together.”

St. Al blew open the contest in the third quarter, holding the Bobcats without a point until the 1:35 mark in the period. By then, the Flashes were ahead comfortably 45-21.

Chase Smith led the Flashes with 13 points while Marsh Willis had 12 and J.R. Burnett chipped in 11. Baer had six.

Bogue Chitto was led by Dantae Ratcliff’s game-high 20 points.

(G) St. Al 53, Bogue Chitto 47

While the St. Al boys had an easy time with the Bobcats, the same could not be said for the Lady Flashes, who had to claw their way past an athletic Bogue Chitto club to stay unbeaten.

After playing passively in a zone in the first quarter, Bogue Chitto (5-5) beared its claws with a physical man-to-man press.

The Lady Bobcats were able to erase all of St. Al’s 17-point first quarter lead, tying the game at 31-all early in the third quarter.

It was at that point that St. Al (12-0, 3-0) coach Drew McBrayer made a key adjustment, moving the Lady Flashes into a sagging zone defense in an effort to deny Bogue Chitto’s athletic post players Shasta Porter and Kimberlee Thomas the ball.

&#8220They were getting behind us in our man so coach put us in a 2-3 zone,” Annie Beaugh said. &#8220That made them have to kick the ball out and shoot from outside.”

It was something Bogue Chitto did not do very well. The Lady Bobcats made just 2 of 12 shots in the last 6 minutes of the period.

Beaugh, meanwhile, got the Lady Flashes’ offense going, hitting two free throws, a 16-foot jumper from the corner and a six-foot bucket in the lane for a 37-32 lead. Beaugh added two more baskets during an 8-1 run that helped St. Al take a 47-37 lead early in the fourth period.

A putback by Porter made it a five-point game with 30 seconds left. A five second call on Beaugh gave the Lady Bobcats one last shot but that quickly disappeared when Candace Avants dribbled the ball off her foot with 15 seconds to go.

&#8220We knew they’d be tough because they took West Lincoln to the wire,” McBrayer said. &#8220This was a good fight. They got physical with us but we did a great job of handling it. We just needed to hit our free throws at the end.”

Annie Beaugh finished with 22 points. Sarah Kerut had 18 and Amy Beaugh chipped in nine.