At one point in the third quarter, the St. Aloysius Lady Flashes basketball team gave up a 6-0 run to end the quarter.

However, it embodied its mascot and in a flash, would begin a 19-5 fourth quarter run to beat Hartfield Academy 46-36.

Elise Piazza scored 10 points with two rebounds and a steal, while Brooklyn Breithaupt and Grace Upshaw each added another nine. Breithaupt grabbed four rebounds with a steal and Upshaw secured another seven off the glass and recorded five steals.

“I knew I had to switch some things up. We were in the 2-3 (zone) a little too long so that’s why I switched it up, they got comfortable playing against it,” St. Al coach Devlin Thompson said about his patience in the second half. “We were scoring off turnovers, we were getting turnovers off defense and we were executing off that.

“They shared the ball, they played together, had bounce passes in the lane; we were just fundamentally sound at the end of the fourth quarter.”

The most impressive improvement of the night for the Lady Flashes was how well they controlled the ball.

Instead of the usual 26 turnovers they average, they cut it down to just seven, which is something the team has worked on in practice.

“They played good, the played hard,” Thompson said. “The girls are getting better executing but we played harder. Overall their effort was good.”

 

(B) Hartfield 70, St. Al 52

Joshua Brown scored 21 points, with nine coming from behind the arc, grabbed four rebounds and recorded two steals in the loss to Hartfield. Rett Verhine had a double-double with 15 points and led the team in rebounding with 14.

Despite the double digit loss, Thompson is satisfied with how his team communicated, are starting to play together and trust each other on the offensive and defensive side of the floor, which he believes will carry the team a long way. The Flashes, similar to the Lady Flashes, also recorded an impressive feat with just eight turnovers against the Hawks.

“We’re getting better,” Thompson said. “That’s all I can ask for. We’re improving daily. As long as I get the effort and the commitment from them and the will to want to win, I’m ok with that. We gave the effort and we executed, but we just came up short tonight.”

Hartfield exploited the Flashes defense coming away with 11 assists.

“It was pretty tough because we weren’t rotating. You can tell they’re a well-coached team,” Thompson said. “They were getting in the lane and finding each other. They were making great decisions on the offensive end.”