St. Aloysius had a pair of breathers Thursday night, leading into Saturday afternoon’s historic matchup with Trinity Episcopal of Natchez. The games with Trinity will mark St. Al’s first against a Mississippi Private School Association member in a major sport.

The Lady Flashes (5-13, 3-4) tuned up with a 56-36 win over visiting Mississippi School for the Deaf. It was their second win over MSD in as many nights. They beat MSD in Jackson on Wednesday. By winning its fifth game of the season, St. Al also surpassed last year’s win total of four.

Tori Hines, who had a big night with 17 points and 13 rebounds, said the Lady Flashes have improved because they are sharing the basketball.

“We played as a team,” Hines said. “It’s been a while since we had a game like this, maybe two years. We’re passing the ball to all of our teammates, instead of just passing it to our friends.”

Hines said she is looking forward to the game Saturday with Trinity.

“I don’t know much about them, but I’m looking forward to playing them. It’s something different.”

St. Al coach Gary Miller was glad to see both his girls and boys teams enjoy easy wins. The boys won 68-44.

“You kind of need a breather like this every now and then. That was fun tonight. It was good to get everybody in there,” Miller said.

Four different Lady Flashes scored in the opening quarter to help the club take a 14-6 lead. They went up 23-8 when MSD made a 9-2 push to cut the lead to 25-17 by halftime. Joi Harrell dropped in a pair of 3-pointers to key the run.

St. Al roared back to start the third quarter, scoring all 14 points in the quarter to go up 39-17. MSD missed all 11 of its shots in the quarter while St. Al got six points and three rebounds from Hines while Katie Koestler had three rebounds and three steals in the quarter. Ashtin Giambrone capped the third quarter by banking in a 17-footer at the horn.

Miller emptied his bench with 4:40 to go. Brittany Turner led the reserves with eight points and four rebounds, Koestler ended with 10 points and seven rebounds while Carlye Smith had nine points and six assists.

Neshara Joseph led MSD with 21.

St. Al boys thump MSD, 68-44

The Flashes (8-11, 4-3) jumped on MSD with a 27-point first quarter and never looked back. Luke Burnett hit a pair of 3-pointers to key a quick start. Alex Lanier, who had 16 points, hit two free throws with five minutes to go to give St. Al its largest lead at 63-32.

Lanier was one of five Flashes to score at least eight points. Burnett had 11 points while Chris Lewis had 10 followed by Sean Johnson and Peter Halinski with eight each. Marquaris Boyd of MSD led all scorers with 22 points.

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Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com.