St. Aloysius earned the right to play for its first division championship since 2007 — and one more home game.
The Flashes rallied after wasting a 28-point second-half lead, fending off Bogue Chitto down the stretch to win 77-71 in the Division 7-1A tournament semifinals.
St. Al (12-13) will play Hinds AHS (22-4) today at 5:30 p.m. at Bogue Chitto in the tournament championship game. Both teams will host a Class 1A South State satellite round game on Tuesday night, regardless of the outcome today.
“That’s a great thing to know, that they’ll be coming to us,” St. Al coach Delvin Thompson said.
Ben Welp led the Flashes with 22 points and eight rebounds, Luke Eckstein had 18 points and seven rebounds, and Matthew Foley scored 14 points.
Connor Smith had 15 points and seven assists. It was Smith who put the Flashes back in front after Bogue Chitto had stormed back from its huge deficit to tie the game at 66 with about two minutes to play. St. Al turned several turnovers into points after that and managed to stay a step ahead of the Bobcats until the final buzzer.
“They made a run,” Thompson said with a chuckle. “They were gassed, though. We had three or four turnovers after that and we were able to keep the lead.”