St. Aloysius handled West Lincoln’s vaunted press for the most part Tuesday night, but the Bears’ halfcourt defense proved a bit too tough.

West Lincoln held the Flashes without a point for nearly five minutes in the fourth quarter and that was enough for the Bears to remain unbeaten in Division 7-1A play with their 50-43 win.

&#8220We made some good defensive stops in the fourth quarter,” West Lincoln coach Lane Young said. &#8220To win here, is a big win for us.”

&#8220They came in here undefeated in the division and we made it a close game,” said St. Al coach Penn Majors. &#8220We handled the press good up to a point. We were able to get it down but then we didn’t make good decisions when we got it to our end. We needed to either keep going to the basket or pull it out. We misread that play at least six times.”

St. Al (12-7, 5-2) was hoping a win could pull them into a first place tie with the Bears. They had a 29-25 lead midway through the third quarter when Marsh Willis had one of those misreads on a break Majors referred to.

The miss sparked an 8-2 Bears run that put them up 33-31 after an offensive putback by Bradleigh Rice. St. Al never led again.

West Lincoln led 37-36 going into the fourth quarter. Two turnovers and three missed shots prevented the Flashes from retaking the lead. Jeremy Byrd converted a key 3-point play to make it 40-36 with 5 minutes, 12 seconds left.

St. Al finally ended its drought with 3:22 left on a basket by John Robert Burnett. The Flashes then got a stop but could not convert as Willis threw up an air ball off a break.

A basket by Jamey Byrd and two free throws by Aaron Shaw put the Bears up 47-40 with 55 seconds left.

Jeremy Byrd led West Lincoln with 16 points. Jamey Byrd had 11 and Shaw added 10. The Bears made just 16 of 42 shots from the field but they did hold a 24-21 edge over St. Al in rebounds.

Chase Smith had a double-double for the Flashes with 12 points and 10 rebounds. Willis had nine points while Burnett and Chris Johnson each had eight.

(G) West Lincoln 31, St. Al 27

First year coach Kyt Bonner took the blame for the Lady Flashes’ poor effort in a home division loss to the Lady Bears.

&#8220I take the credit for that loss,” Bonner said. &#8220Evidently, we weren’t prepared for that game. We came out OK, but then we went real flat. It’s my responsibility to have us prepared.”

Bonner, however, had no hand in the Lady Flashes making just 10 of 38 shots from the field and 16 key turnovers in a slow-paced game.

West Lincoln (9-11, 4-3) was even worse from the field, going 4-of-24 through three quarters. But in the fourth, Kacey Smith and Tatianna Marshall each made a pair of critical 3-pointers.

Marshall’s second trey with 46 seconds left snapped a 27-27 tie. She then made one of two free throws to ice the win. She had 11 points to lead West Lincoln.

Sarah Kerut had 15 points and nine rebounds for St. Al (13-7, 5-2).