Playing four games in six days actually did the St. Aloysius boys a lot of good.

The Flashes put together their most complete game of the season to beat Riverside 69-58 Tuesday night in a getaway game before Thanksgiving break.

The win was St. Al’s third in five games, going back to Thursday’s win at archrival Natchez-Cathedral. They beat another Catholic school rival in Greenville St. Joe Friday at the Catholic Tournament at Madison-St. Joe. That was followed by a loss to Madison-St. Joe in the tournament finals Saturday and another to an unbeaten Richland team Monday night at home.

“That was a lot of games in a short time, but I think we got better,” St. Al forward Alex Lanier said.

 Lanier scored 20 points to lead the Flashes and was instrumental in a zone press that dismantled Riverside (2-5) in the second quarter.

The Flashes (3-5) forced 10 Bulldog turnovers, which ignited a 24-3 burst in the second quarter. It turned a one-point deficit into a 20-point halftime lead at 38-18.

“This was our best game of the season,” second-year St. Al coach Gary Miller said. “We did what we had to do. We’re not an up and down team. We’ve got to get the ball where it needs to be and tonight, we did that. We played well as a team, moved the ball well and we did it against a very quick team.”

When Lanier wasn’t scoring inside, he was dishing the ball back out to Sean Johnson, who knocked down five perimeter shots in the first half for 13 of his 19 points.

“Sean is a good shooter and I felt like I was getting a lot of assists out to him,” Lanier said. “Having Chris Lewis is also a big help, because he is so strong and he can get so many rebounds.”

St. Al led by 22 after three quarters at 52-30. Miller began subbing liberally and that’s when Riverside made a late run. They got the lead down to seven at 61-54 with a minute to play. Reserve guard Chris Ingram stymied the comeback with two free throws for a 63-54 edge.

The Flashes’ starters came back and Lanier and Johnson made five of six free throws in the final 40 seconds to close out the win.

Lewis ended up with 12 points and Ford Biedenharn had nine.

Riverside was led by Johnny Thomas with 21.

St. Al girls beat Riverside, 61-57

Tori Hines’ steal and layup locked up the Lady Flashes’ (2-6) first home win of the season.

St. Al trailed by seven early in the fourth quarter but 3-pointers from Carlye Smith and Ashtin Giambrone capped an 8-0 run to put St. Al ahead 49-48. Four free throws from Katie Koestler kept St. Al ahead by two at 59-57. With five seconds left, Hines stole an inbounds pass from midcourt and went in for the uncontested layup to ice it.

Koestler finished with 17 points while Hines had 16. Smith chipped in 12 while Aden Rials had nine.

Cleo Spanel had 17 points for Riverside. Jessica Bailey chipped in 14 and Jill Williams had 13. Chelsea Hall had 11 points before dislocating her ankle early in the fourth quarter. She was taken to River Region Medical Center and then released to her father.

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Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com.