Point of honor|Biedenharn leads Flashes to win over Pisgah

Published 12:00 am Friday, February 6, 2009

SANDHILL — Ford Biedenharn seemed like a blur Thursday night.

One minute, he was passing to an open teammate for an easy basket. The next, he was scoring one of his own. Later, he was terrorizing Pisgah’s ballhandlers and chasing his own rebounds. He was everywhere, and thanks to that, St. Aloysius was able to celebrate a victory on the trip home.

Biedenharn, St. Al’s sophomore point guard, had a career-high 20 points, five steals and four assists to lead the Flashes to a 54-47 win over Pisgah in the regular-season finale.

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“I was feeling good. Shooting good, getting good looks, and I was getting Sean (Johnson) the ball, and he can shoot too,” Biedenharn said. Johnson, St. Al’s shooting guard, hit three 3-pointers and finished with nine points. “I was just trying to follow the ball, have a good game and get us the win.”

David Hamilton had 21 points and five assists for Pisgah (3-17, 2-12 Division 7-1A), while Alex Lanier scored 14 points and Chris Lewis had nine points and eight rebounds for St. Al (12-15, 7-7). It was Biedenharn, though, who had the hot hand.

He hit three 3-pointers and had four steals in the first half as St. Al raced out to a double-digit lead in the first quarter. Pisgah cut it to nine, 30-21, by halftime, but the Flashes opened the third quarter with a 9-2 run and eventually led by as many as 22 points midway through the fourth.

“What killed us was in the first quarter. That’s by far the best shooting team we’ve played all year,” Pisgah coach Jed Mooney said. “The kids came over and asked me if they were doing anything wrong on defense. I had to tell them no, they’re hitting 3s from NBA range. There’s nothing you can do about that.”

Pisgah did find an answer in the fourth quarter, though, and made things uncomfortable for St. Al. The Dragons held the Flashes without a field goal for the last 5 1/2 minutes and outscored them 18-3 during that stretch. Pisgah got as close as five points in the final minute before Lanier hit two free throws with 15.1 seconds left to ice it.

(G) Pisgah 77, St. Al 27

Dominique Wilson scored a game-high 16 points, and Tamarra Bowie had 14 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists as Pisgah blitzed St. Al from the opening tip and rolled to a 50-point victory.

Tori Hines had 10 points and 12 rebounds for St. Al.

Pisgah (14-7, 12-2) scored the first 10 points of the game and only allowed St. Al (6-21, 3-11) to score in double figures in one quarter. The Lady Flashes also hurt their own cause by going 7-for-41 (17 percent) from the field for the game.

Pisgah only shot 37 percent for the game, but had 18 steals and took an incredible 91 shots. Pisgah outscored St. Al 44-12 in the second half.

“We just weren’t on tonight. That’s all I can say,” said St. Al’s Katie Koestler, who finished with six points.

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Contact Ernest Bowker at ebowker@vicksburgpost.com