The St. Aloysius Lady Flashes weren’t able to overcome Central Hinds on Friday, and lost 50-31.

The Lady Flashes got within four points of the lead at halftime, only for the Lady Cougars to pull away in the second half.

Grace Upshaw had team highs in scoring and rebounding with 14 points and nine boards, as well as two steals for St. Al. Michelle Howington followed Upshaw’s performance with 13 points, five rebounds and two steals.

“The girls played hard, they played better. We have to learn how to capitalize on turnovers,” St. Al coach Delvin Thompson said.

Thompson said the Lady Flashes are forcing turnovers by making good defensive rotations, cutting off passing lanes and getting physical with opposing ballhandlers. Scoring after the turnovers has been a problem.

“We’re getting turnovers but we’re not executing on the offensive end,” Thompson said. We have to get more fast break points and be more open on the break.”

Central Hinds’ Anastasia Creshale scored a game-high 18 points while going 7-for-8 from the free throw line. Kendall Lowery added 12 points.

Central Hinds led 23-19 at halftime, but things weren’t as close in the second half the Lady Cougars finished the game on a 27-12 scoring binge.

The Lady Flashes don’t have a true post player. The player who does play the position, Olivia Curtis, was sidelined Friday with a sprained ankle. To get around her absence, Thompson preached to his team ball movement and offensive execution.

“I see a lot of communication coming from them. We have to have energy coming off the bench to move the ball and they’re doing that,” Thompson said. “The girls are getting better.”

 

(B) Central Hinds 78, St. Aloysius 46

By the end of the first quarter St. Aloysius was down by 13 points, and the deficit only grew from there.

Ronald Williams led Central Hinds with 18 points, of which 16 came in the first half with no free throw attempts. Jonathan Albright and Davis McDade each contributed 10 points in the Cougars’ rout of the Flashes.

“It was a better effort but we’ve got to learn to play together. But other than that we had a lot of turnovers. We were playing at a faster pace that we should be playing at,” Thompson said. “Overall, as long as we’re improving every single game I’m really not worried about the outcome of the season.”

St. Aloysius’ Josh Brown scored a game-high 20 points.

As far as playing together as a team, Thompson saw slight improvement in terms of moving the ball.

Thompson is dealing with a new group of players, and one hurdle they’ve had to get over is the lack of fundamental basketball knowledge. Rotating on defense, spacing the court on offense and getting into position for rebounds have been challenges to overcome.

St. Al only had 18 rebounds as a team on Friday night. Rett Verhine and Ben Brown led the team with four apiece.

“We work on all that but nobody seems to do it,” Thompson said.

At the tail end of the season, the Flashes are becoming more competitive and attitudes have positively adjusted, Thompson said.

“We still have a lot of improvement to do with that. We got to learn how to compete,” Thompson said.

St. Al will return to action Tuesday, when it goes on the road to Park Place Christian in Pearl in a district game. St. Al was scheduled to host Riverfield Academy on Saturday afternoon, but that game was postponed until Thursday night.

After next week’s games, the Flashes only have two left before the district tournament Feb. 4-6 at Central Hinds.