Playing their fourth game in five days took a lot out of the legs of the St. Aloysius Lady Flashes.

Still, they had their shot at upsetting a good Class 3A team Monday night at St. Al. Two missed shots in the final 24 seconds, however, prevented them from earning their second win of the season.

“Oh yeah, we were wore out,” said a spent St. Al senior Katie Koestler, who tried her best to will a win out of the Lady Flashes. She finished with 18 points, 12 rebounds and five steals.

“We just didn’t have any legs. We were having to jump just to get the free throws off,” Koestler said.

St. Al (1-6) was much better at the line than from the field. They made 11 of 14 free throws but made just 16 of 60 shots from the floor.

“We just didn’t score,” St. Al coach Gary Miller said. “They (Richland) had beat us really bad the first time, so we did get better. But it’s not an excuse that we were tired. We’ve got to learn how to win.”

St. Al looked out of it down eight at 44-36 with 1:15 remaining. Then Carlye Smith hit a 3-pointer to make it 46-41 and the Lady Flashes had new life.

Another 3-pointer by Smith made it 48-44 with 41 seconds to go. Koestler forced a turnover on the inbounds pass and that led to two free throws by Tori Hines to make it 48-46. Richland botched a second inbounds pass and Koestler drew the foul. She made the first free throw but missed the second to leave St. Al down one at 48-47 with 27 seconds left.

A travelling call on the Lady Rangers (5-2) with 24 seconds left, gave St. Al a chance for the win. On the inbounds, Smith, who had 16 points including three made 3-pointers, was short on her final attempt.

Richland rebounded and Felicia Featherstone went to the line for two shots. She made one of two to up the Richland lead to 49-47 with 16 seconds left.

St. Al went inside on their final trip, getting a shot off the block from Hines, but it was short with four seconds left.

“We’re improving, we just need to do a better job of moving the ball around,” Koestler said. St. Al had 26 turnovers in the game.

“We’ve got another game (today) so, it’s going to be tough. Maybe, they’ll let us sleep in,” Koestler said.

St. Al will host Riverside today at 5, an hour earlier than normal because of Thanksgiving break.

Richland was led by Featherstone with 17 points and Ashley Baldwin had 14. Hines ended up with 10 points and 10 rebounds for St. Al.

 

(B) Richland 60, St. Al 44

Unbeaten Richland (7-0) pulled away in the fourth quarter after withstanding an early third-quarter barrage from Ford Biedenharn to roll at St. Al.

Biedenharn hit three 3-pointers to open the third quarter and pull St. Al (2-5) to within 34-31 but the Rangers answered with a 14-1 run to go up 48-35. Brandon Williams had eight of his game-high 18 points to lead the charge.

Rasmon Conley had 15 and Patrick Terrell added 14 for Richland.

Biedenharn ended up with 12 points. Alex Lanier led the Flashes with 13 and Luke Burnett had nine, all in the first half.

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Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com.