The St. Aloysius boys’ basketball team had its first practice Monday, and its first game a little more than 24 hours later. Considering that, it’s understandable why coach Delvin Thompson didn’t seem too concerned after his team was blown off the court by St. Andrew’s.

Eleven players scored in the first half as St. Andrew’s opened a 42-point lead by the midway point of the second quarter, and it went on to an easy 83-28 victory over St. Al on Tuesday night.

The Flashes were never really in a game that for them was little more than a glorified early-season scrimmage that allowed Thompson to see where his players stand. There are only two starters back from last year’s team, and five players were still attached to the football team until this week.

“I told them before the game that I don’t really care about the outcome. I don’t care about the score. As long as they’re doing what I ask them to do and we’re working on things we need to work on, I’m fine,” Thompson said. “Some of them are off the football field and hadn’t even played basketball before.”

Wilson Montjay and Aaron Hanay scored 10 points apiece for St. Andrew’s, while Nate Carraway led the team with 12 points. The Saints led 62-12 at halftime as they pressed and kept the Flashes from getting the ball across halfcourt on a number of possessions. When St. Al did move the ball into the frontcourt, the Saints’ swarming defense tied them up, forced turnovers, or forced bad shots.

St. Andrew’s outscored St. Al 32-3 in the second quarter.

“We kind of got gassed after that first four or five minutes. Practice yesterday was the same way. We have to work that football out. They’ve got to learn basketball, plus they’ve got to get in shape,” Thompson said.

Rett Verhine and Jaylen Whitaker led St. Al with 13 points and four rebounds each. Verhine hit three 3-pointers in the second half, which was one bright spot in an otherwise dismal night.

Thompson seemed confident his team would be fine in the long run. With so little practice time and basketball-specific conditioning under their belt, he acknowledged the Flashes will take some lumps early as they play their way into shape.

“Everybody’s new. We only have two starters from last year and everybody else is new. I basically have a bunch of ninth-graders. I think we have eight ninth-graders on the team. So we’ll be OK. It’s going to come down to executing, and we have to learn basketball, too,” Thompson said.

(G) St. Aloysius 53, St. Andrew’s 50

Grace Upshaw went 8-for-11 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter and finished with a game-high 20 points as St. Aloysius hung on to beat St. Andrew’s in the girls’ game Tuesday.

Upshaw scored 20 points in the second half to help the Lady Flashes (2-1) prevail after they wasted most of a 10-point lead in the fourth quarter.

“We started rushing and trying to do stuff,” Thompson said. “It came down to executing at the end. I called timeout and they followed the gameplan, and that was it.”

Brooklyn Breithaupt hit three 3-pointers and finished with 11 points for St. Al, while Michelle Howington had nine points and five rebounds. As a team, the Lady Flashes were 17-for-28 from the foul line and hit six 3-pointers.

Karilynn Stephens led St. Andrew’s with 23 points, and Julia Conway scored 12.

St. Al will next play at Cathedral Monday at night at 6.