The Flashes got the shots they wanted in the paint. They defended West Lincoln Tuesday as well as they’ve defended anyone all year. Their offense was nothing but crisp passes with good spacing.

It all boiled down to execution.

St. Aloysius shot just 26 percent from the field, with most of their misses coming on layups as West Lincoln rolled to a 60-44 win.

West Lincoln guard Jay Case scored a game-high 27 points, but in the end, it was the missed layups that haunted the Flashes.

“We had a great defensive effort,” St. Al coach Richard Hodges said. “We got stop after stop after stop.

“But we shot 13-of-49 and 36 of those were point-blank, all at the rim. I swear there was a Tupperware lid over the rim tonight. The Case kid (Jay Case) is good, but he didn’t beat us. What beat us was our lack of converting shots at the rim.”

The Flashes led only once at 2-0, but it’d be long scoring droughts that blighted the first half for the Flashes. Case scored 16 of his points in the first half to put the Flashes in an ever-deepening deficit. But Luke Burnett, who paced the Flashes with 20 points, hit a layup late in the second quarter and swished a pair of free throws to draw the Flashes closer at 35-21 at the break.

In the second half, the Flashes turned their defense into easy transition opportunities. Elliott Bexley and Ford Biedenharn got in the passing lanes and converted steals into easy layups.

Biedenharn also held Case to only six points in the frame and his layup after a steal whittled the West Lincoln lead to 40-30 midway through the third.

But it’d be as close as the Flashes would get.

Case drilled a couple of 3-pointers to bolster the margin and the Flashes could get no closer than 13 points the rest of the way.

Biedenharn added 11 points for the Flashes (4-12, 1-7).

Chad Herring added 15 points and De Price contributed 10 for West Lincoln (15-7, 5-2).

(G) West Lincoln 67,  St. Aloysius 30

With leading scorer Tori Hines manning the

goalbox in the school’s first girls’ soccer playoff match, the Lady Flashes (5-13, 1-5) struggled mightily against West Lincoln. Only three Lady Flashes scored in the contest. Sara Howington and Carlye Smith scored 11 points apiece to lead St. Al, while Hannah Knouse paced West Lincoln (14-8, 5-1) with 14 points.

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Contact Steve Wilson at swilson@vicksburgpost.com