St. Aloysius coach Delvin Thompson stood near the baseline as the clock expired Tuesday night and watched the first group of girls he ever coached at the school walk off the floor.

The Lady Flashes’ unyielding effort wasn’t rewarded on the scoreboard, where they lost 59-28 to a talented Pelahatchie team. But once the game ended and the four seniors were standing with their parents at midcourt as the crowd respectfully cheered, he couldn’t help but smile.

“This is actually the team I started off with my first year coaching here. I’ve been with them for five years, eighth grade to now. They played tough, played with a lot of heart, but the thing with this team is they just have to stay consistent,” Thompson said. “You play your game, but we have to finish games. We play one quarter, two quarters, but we have to stay consistent the whole game. Man, I love this group, the boys and the girls … It’s a pretty special class.”

St. Al looked like it would have no problem with the Chiefs early on, playing lockdown defense in a close 7-6 first quarter before a deep Avery Parman jumper gave the Lady Flashes the lead.

It didn’t last more than thirty seconds.

Pelahatchie jumped out on an 8-0 run to regain the lead, taking a 26-15 advantage into the break.

It was the only cushion they would need.

The Chiefs exploded out of the second half on a 10-0 run to go up by 20 points midway through the third quarter and never trailed by less than 15 from that point on.

“Like I said, we’ve just got to stay consistent. We get too relaxed in games and stuff like that, but we have to stay consistent. We have to. We have to finish games,” Thompson said. “The offensive rebounding is killing us every game. Once we get that down pat and they’re not getting as many offensive rebounds. We’ll get in practice this week and run some offensive rebounding drills this week.”

A short jumpshot by Michelle Howington briefly stopped the bleeding for St. Aloysius, but by that time Pelhatchie had already mounted a 38-18 lead that was simply too much to overcome.

“I told them, I said the first four minutes of a quarter makes the difference,” Thomspon said. “Either we need to tie the game up or they’ll go up 20. What happened? They went up 20 and the end of the third quarter. That’s what happens.”

Officials institued a running clock with two minutes remaining and Pelhatc hie up by 30 points, and the lead shot out to as high as 50-26 before the final whistle blew. Parman ended the night with 10 points, while Allie Willis recorded six and Claire Gamble five for St. Aloysius.

The Lady Flashes will look to right the ship Friday when they take on Piney Woods at home as they vie for the thir seed in Region 7-A.

“We should be fine against Piney Woods. We’ll try to shoot for third place in the district and keep fighting. They’re playing good. We need to put together four quarters. Once we put together four quarters, we’ll be ready to roll.”

 

Pelahatchie 80 , St. Al 60

St. Aloysius hung with Pelahatchie basket for basket for one quarter before slowly sputtering down the stretch in a 20-point loss. The Flashes, despite good numbers from its starting five, were unable to handle the athletic Chiefs at home Tuesday. Lucke Eckstein recorded a double-double and Drake Dorbeck came close, but it would not be enough in the loss.

Eckstein ended the night with  21 points, 10 rebounds and a block, while Dorbeck finished with eight points, 11 rebounds and two blocks. Connor Smith had 16 points.

Pelahatchie was paced by Lochay Irvin, who led all scorers with 26 points. Dyllan Taylor also scored 16 points for the Chiefs.
St. Aloysius finishes up its two-game home-stand Friday against Piney Woods.