VICKSBURG &045; After watching a 23-point lead whittled down to a couple of baskets, the three foul-plagued St. Aloysius starters were chomping at the bit to get back in the game against Cathedral.

Dario Lawrence, Anthony Rector, and Drew Mazzanti stomped their feet, yelled at their teammates, and urged coach Paul Hayden to make the move.

When Hayden finally relented, they didn’t disappoint.

John David Hosemann hit three 3-pointers and scored 11 of his 14 points in the fourth quarter as St. Al, energized by the return of Lawrence, Rector and Mazzanti, went on a game-clinching 17-0 run and beat Cathedral 73-51 on Friday.

Kyle Richards and Rector added 22 points apiece for St. Al (7-11, 5-2 Region 7-1A), and Mazzanti scored 11. Russell Barner led Cathedral (6-13, 3-4) with 16.

&uot;I was just trying to figure out if we were going to be able to come back in and do anything,&uot; Rector said of his time on the bench. &uot;Once we went back in, we knew they weren’t going to be able to stop us.&uot;

Richards scored eight points in the last two minutes of the first half, and Rector scored eight more in the first three minutes of the second as St. Al blew open a close game. The Flashes stretched their lead to as many as 23 points, 53-30, late in the third quarter before Mazzanti, Lawrence and Rector all went to the bench with four fouls.

Cathedral immediately took advantage of their absence, turning up the defensive pressure and going on a 17-0 run late in the third quarter and early in the fourth. Jonathan Jackson’s jumper from the right side cut it to 53-47 with 5:24 to play, and the Green Wave had all the momentum on its side.

&uot;We just put a little different pressure, and he was playing some of his bench players. Our kids played with some enthusiasm and played hard,&uot; Cathedral coach Bobby Holder said.

After Jackson’s jumper, the cavalry arrived in the form of the three starters. They gave the Flashes a boost right away with a defensive stop, and Hosemann hit a 3-pointer with 5:03 to play to break Cathedral’s run.

The shot also triggered St. Al’s surge. Hosemann added a free throw and two more 3-pointers, the last with just over two minutes remaining, to key the Flashes’ 17-0 run and put the lead back at 23 points, 70-47.

St. Al girls 36, Cathedral 21

A quick look at the halftime score of the St. Al-Cathedral game indicates one of two things &045; either dreadful offense or great defense.

Hayden and Cathedral coach Erin Binns like to think it was both.

St. Al held Cathedral to 13.7 percent (7-for-51) shooting for the game &045; and a cool 12.5 percent (2-for-16) in the first half &045; and forced 27 turnovers to come away with the win.

Cathedral (2-17, 1-6) didn’t score a point until Allyson Burns sank a pair of free throws with 2:28 to play in the first quarter, and didn’t make a field goal until Laura Huffines hit a jumper from just inside the 3-point line with 4:42 to go in the second.

&uot;That was our downfall,&uot; Binns said. &uot;It was pretty bad. If you can’t put the ball in the bucket, there’s no need playing all kinds of defense.&uot;

The Lady Flashes (9-9, 4-3) weren’t much better from the field, hitting just 7 of their first 28 shots before going 4-for-8 in the fourth quarter.

The lack of offensive punch led to a 3-2 St. Al lead after one quarter and a halftime score of 12-7 in favor of the Lady Flashes, which seemed better suited for football than basketball.

&uot;I told them it was like doing their homework and leaving it at home,&uot; Hayden said. &uot;They did all the work. That’s the best defensively I’ve seen us move. We were busting our butt all over the place, and we just weren’t finishing.&uot;