St. Aloysius made another run at Hillcrest Christian, but once against came up agonizingly short.

Top-seeded Hillcrest made four 3-pointers in the third quarter — two each by Harrison Carr and Carter Mullins — and used a quick 8-0 run to surge past St. Al. Hillcrest then held on at the end for a 68-63 victory over the Flashes in the semifinals of the MAIS Class AAA South State tournament at Columbia Academy.

It was the third time this season that Hillcrest has beaten St. Al (16-10).

“They got hot for about two minutes,” St. Al coach Eddie Pickle said. “We had to foul late and they made a few free throws. We had to shoot 3s with about about 35 seconds left and just couldn’t get a shot to drop.”

Phillip Upshaw led St. Al with 16 points. Alvin Brown scored 14 points and Braxton Chewning had 13. The Flashes led 39-35 at halftime, but Hillcrest pushed ahead 52-51 with its third-quarter run and held on at the end.

Neither team ever led by more than eight points.

Carr finished with 20 points and Mullins had 15 for Hillcrest (20-8). They each hit three 3-pointers to lead the Cougars into Saturday night’s championship game against Riverfield Academy.

Riverfield beat Bowling Green 52-38 in the other semifinal on Friday.

St. Al will play Bowling Green in the South State tournament consolation game Saturday at 4 p.m. All four semifinalists advanced to next week’s Class AAA state tournament at Leake Academy.