St. Aloysius gave its archrival Cathedral a lot to think about after administrating a 50-36 beatdown Tuesday night.

With the win, and another tonight against the Mississippi School for the Deaf, the Flashes can sew up the fifth seed in next week’s Division 7-1A tournament — which it hosts. If they finish fifth, the Flashes would play Cathedral again in the first round.

First-year Flashes coach Richard Hodges said his team showed its best execution this season.

“If we can get ahead, we’re going to win. Tonight we got a lead. Then in the second half we extended out their defense, used our back cuts and got to the basket. The object of our offense in the second half was to get to the rim and we did that. And it also opens up other things for us,” Hodges said.

St. Al (5-14, 2-6 Division 7-1A) went 7-for-7 from the field in the third quarter to extend a nine-point halftime lead to 39-23 going into the fourth quarter. All seven baskets were driving layups and were made by four different players.

They added two more baskets early in the fourth quarter to make it nine straight makes before a Ford Biedenharn miss ended the streak. He came back to make two more buckets and then used a feed to Sean Johnson to knock down a 3-pointer for a 45-26 lead with 4:19 to play.

“Right now, it’s all about the tournament. We’re looking at having to play them again at 8:30 next Tuesday night and the winner of that game goes to the playoffs,” Hodges said.

Cathedral coach Peter Arnold hopes a different Green Wave team shows up. The loss dropped Cathedral (9-11, 4-5) to fourth in the six-team division.

“We never showed up from the beginning. St Al played good. They were much more aggressive than we were,” Arnold said.

Cathedral missed all six of its shots in the first quarter and was just 3-for-21 from the field in the half. Still, they were down 18-13 with 40 seconds to play before halftime when a steal and layup by Johnson was followed by another steal and two free throws from Elliott Bexley to make it 22-13.

Johnson finished with 19 points, five rebounds, two steals and two assists. Biedenharn had 13 points, five rebounds and seven assists. Luke Burnett had 10 points and four assists.

Cathedral had three players finish with six points each.

 

(G) Cathedral 48,

St. Aloysius 29

Down two starters, the Lady Flashes gave Cathedral a battle for a half before running out of gas.

The Green Wave (10-12, 5-4) got three players in double figures led by Epiphany Jackson’s 13 points. Ana Perry had 12 and Ginny Daggett had 11.

St. Al (5-14, 1-7) was without starting center Tori Hines, who was playing goalkeeper in a soccer playoff game at Madison-St. Joe, and forward Sara Howington who sat out with a knee sprain. The Lady Flashes still trailed 22-17 at the half, but scored just 12 points in the second half.

Ann Thomas led St. Al with nine points and nine rebounds. Carlye Smith had eight points and eight rebounds while Alexa Engel had seven points and six boards.

Contact Jeff Byrd at jbyrd@vicksburgpost.com