Cathedral teams fall in tournament finals

Published 12:00 am Sunday, December 2, 2001

Cathedral High’s varsity basketball teams were swept in the finals of the Mississippi Catholic High School Basketball Tournament Saturday afternoon at the Cathedral High gym.

In the girls championship game, Danielle Klaus scored 20 points, including a key free throw with 30 seconds left in the game, and grabbed 15 rebounds as the St. Aloysius Lady Flashes held off the Lady Green Wave 38-37.

&uot;It was a tough loss, but I was pleased with the effort of our young players,&uot; said Lady Green Wave head coach Craig Beesley.

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Cathedral (1-4) came out cold shooting in the first quarter, hitting just 1-of-7 from the field on a jumper by Kate Prescott with 45 seconds left.

Late in the second quarter, Prescott injured her left hamstring and did not return to the game. &uot;I hope it’s just a pull,&uot; Beesley said.

St. Aloysius (4-3) appeared to be in control of the game after taking a 20-8 halftime lead.

Then Cathedral stormed back in the third quarter by behind the shooting of Kelsey Stephens and Mary Margaret Alwood. The Lady Green Wave outscored the Lady Flashes 17-5, including a three-pointer by Stephens at the end of the quarter, for a 25-25 score.

Stephens had 17 points and hit four threes. Alwood had 10 points and a game-high 17 boards and hit a pair of threes.

&uot;We came out in the third quarter and played man-to-man defense and hit some three-pointers to tie the game,&uot; Beesley said.

Then with 49 seconds left in the game, Alwood hit two free throws to tie the score at 37. Nineteen seconds later, Cathedral called a time-out. However, Cathedral was out of time-outs and was hit with a technical foul.

Klaus made the first free throw, but missed the second one. St. Aloysius ran out the clock as Cathedral didn’t foul any of the opposing players.

&uot;We lost count of time-outs and that was my fault,&uot; Beesley said.

In the boys championship game, St. Joseph Catholic of Madison came back from an early first-quarter deficit to defeat the Green Wave 50-39.

Clint Luckett led St. Joseph with 17 points and Ray Coleman added 13 points. Chris Shaidnagle had a game-high 15 rebounds for the Bruins (4-4).

&uot;We were just glad to win,&uot; said Bruins head coach Keith Barnes.

St. Joseph trailed 10-5 in the first quarter, but Luckett hit three free-throws to give the Bruins a 13-11 lead at the end of the quarter.

The Bruins then outscored the Green Wave (3-2) 23-10 to take a 36-20 halftime lead.

&uot;We came out hard in the first quarter, but we missed a lot of shots,&uot; said Green Wave head coach Ken Beesley, Jr.

Bart Lane led Cathedral with 12 points and 13 boards. Willie Clark added 11 points.

St. Joseph almost let Cathedral back in the game by scoring just two points in the third quarter.

&uot;We’ve been having some horrible third quarters the last four or five games,&uot; Barnes said. &uot;We were fortunate to win.&uot;

Cathedral returns to Divison 7-1A play when it hosts Bogue Chitto for three games at 5 p.m. Tuesday.