Two areas of notable improvement for St. Aloysius under new coach Richard Hodges were block outs and defensive positioning.

The Lady Flashes had plenty of both in Hodges’ season debut Monday night against Tri-County, a MAIS Class A school from Flora. Sara Howington and Tori Hines combined for 25 points and 21 rebounds to lead the Lady Flashes to an impressive 54-38 win.

Tonight, St. Al steps up in competition against St. Andrew’s of Madison, a MHSAA, Class 3A school. Hodges expects the Lady Flashes to be ready.

“A lot of our philosophy is try and get more possessions than our opponent. That’s what our purple storm is designed to do,” Hodges said of his defense.

The Lady Flashes’ new defense is a mixture of a 1-3-1 zone with some man-to-man mixed in. Box-outs were a staple, leaving Tri-County with very few offensive options.

Through three quarters, the Lady Rebels made just 9-of-34 shots. They got very few second chance points as the Lady Flashes grabbed with 40 rebounds.

“They ran a 1-3-1 just about the whole game but we didn’t shoot well against it,” Tri-County coach Ben Williams said. “Our best scorer, at 16 points a game, was out with a concussion and we had a stretch there in the second quarter where we simply didn’t score. And then we couldn’t do anything with their post player in Hines.”

The returning All-County senior forward turned a close game in the early going into a rout in the second quarter. A 3-pointer by Carlye Smith helped St. Al grab a 17-11 lead after one quarter. Then the clamps came down on Tri-County. They missed five straight shots and had five turnovers during the first six minutes of the second quarter as St. Al went on a 12-0 run to go up 29-11. The Lady Rebels finally made some baskets after Hines went to the bench to get the score to 33-19.

Tri-County (1-3) scored the first four points of the third quarter to cut it to 33-23. Then it was lights out again. St. Al forced the Lady Rebels to miss their last 11 shots of the quarter. Offensively, the St. Al went on another 12-0 run to grab a 45-23 cushion.

“We’ve practiced hard on a lot of things like blocking out. We got that down,” said Smith.

The St. Al point guard had seven rebounds. She also had 10 points, six assists and four steals. St. Al forced 19 turnovers with 14 coming on steals.

Hines left with 12 points, 13 rebounds, two steals and two assists. Howington had 13 points, eight rebounds and two steals.

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Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com