By Matt Sigler

The Natchez Democrat

NATCHEZ — A slow start quickly turned into a blowout for the Cathedral Lady Wave Tuesday against St. Aloysius.

“At the beginning of the game we missed eight shots under the basket,” Cathedral coach Peter Arnold said. “But I kept telling them not to worry about it, because we weren’t going to keep missing.”

The Lady Wave didn’t, and went on to beat St. Al handily, 67-33. Caroline Kaiser scored 11 points and Lessley Dooley added 10 for Cathedral, which led by 13 points at halftime and outscored St. Al 26-5 in the fourth quarter.

Grace Upshaw led St. Al with 11 points, Brooklyn Breithaupt scored 10, Michelle Howington had six, and no one else had more than two.

The Lady Wave pressed the majority of the game, something Arnold had planned to do and something that gave St. Al fits.

“We made a lot of mistakes on defense with rotations,” St. Al coach Delvin Thompson said. “And once we were able to break their press, we didn’t capitalize.”

Cathedral dominated the Lady Flashes in the rebounding department, getting second and third chance points frequently.

“I think we lost the game in rebounding,” Thompson said. “That was the difference in this game.”

At 13-9 going into the second quarter, the two teams were in a defensive deadlock. However, the Lady Wave stretched it to a 13-point lead going into halftime. The lead rarely shrank lower than that, and the Lady Wave put the game away with their big surge in the fourth quarter.

“At the start of the fourth quarter we went full court man, got on a run, and that was it,” Arnold said.

As for St. Al, Thompson said the Lady Flashes will continue to work.

“We didn’t quit in this one,” he said. “We should be better than we are, and we are going to get in the gym and put in the work to get better.”

(B) Cathedral 60, St. Al 35

William Doss and D.J. Batieste led a balanced scoring effort for Cathedral with 12 points apiece, and the Green Wave rolled to an easy win over archrival St. Al. Eleven players scored at least two points for the Green Wave.

Joshua Brown led St. Al (0-2) with 16 points and Jaylen Whitaker had 12.

(B) Tensas 59, PCA 38

Garrett Hutchins scored 11 points and Isaiah Minor finished with 10 points, four rebounds and three blocks, but Porters Chapel Academy fell to Tensas Academy for its third straight loss to start the season.

Kyle Learned had six rebounds for the Eagles.

In the girls’ game, Tensas beat PCA 49-3.

Porters Chapel will play at Mt. Salus on Thursday night.