The game of basketball boils down to three things for Trinity Episcopal head girls’ coach Melanie Hall.

Play hard.

Play smart.

Have fun.

So the three facets all came into play this past week for the Lady Saints in their first week without their lone senior in Sierra Massey. Hall dismissed the team’s second-leading scorer from the team prior to the Christmas break, but the Lady Saints returned with a strong week with a 3-1 campaign capped off by Saturday’s impressive win at Bowling Green.

The team is keeping Hall’s words close to heart, as indicated by Saturday’s win over a team that won the first meeting at Trinity.

&uot;The chemistry is great with our girls,&uot; said Hall, last year’s All-Metro Coach of the Year. &uot;This week was huge for us. We won three out of four ball games, and two of them were big district wins for the girls. Bowling Green beat us the first time, but my kids will give it everything they’ve got every time they get out there. They’re not going to quit.&uot;

The loss of Massey may have been a loss as far as points for a team that up until then relied heavily on Massey and Mallory Archer for offense. Massey left the team when the Lady Saints played at Central Private Dec. 21, the team’s final game before being off until their game Jan. 3 against Amite School Center.

&uot;I’m just going to say it was a coaching decision,&uot; Hall said. &uot;I did what I believe is best for our program and for our team.&uot;

The Lady Saints won that game against Amite, got a huge 3-pointer from Archer with five seconds left for a one-point win over Centreville, lost at Brookhaven Friday and followed it up with 38-37 win over Bowling Green Saturday.

The win over Bowling Green came after Archer had fouled out with 1:25 left in an intense game. The Lady Bucs came down the floor with 10 seconds left down by one and made a pass on the break, but Brandy Hall slapped it away and out of bounds.

Then point guard Megan Dykes broke away for a layup just before the buzzer sounded but came up empty.

&uot;Their best player got a look at a layup and missed it,&uot; Hall said. &uot;I looked at (assistant) Howard (Jones) and said, ‘Justice.’ For the high school girls, it was a great district win. Against Brookhaven, the kids played hard and never quit &045; to come back the next day after playing Brookhaven and that long bus ride.&uot;

The win keeps the Lady Saints (4-3, 12-7) in the top half of the standings in District 4-AA. They are off until Friday’s home game against Silliman.

&uot;I couldn’t be prouder of a group of kids,&uot; Hall said. &uot;We go out to practice every day and have fun. We’re just going to take one game at a time and get better. Bowling Green has a good basketball team. The girls just did a great job. Everybody contributed.&uot;

BIG MAN INSIDE &045; You don’t find guys this size often in the Class 1A ranks, but Pelahatchie went inside a good bit to 6-6 junior Joseph Thompson Friday night in the Wave’s 45-40 overtime win.

Thompson finished with 12 points, but his presence was felt more on the defensive end. The Green Wave’s offense goes inside-out with Hall and Clay Pennington on the blocks, and at one point in the second half Pennington put up a rainbow shot over Thompson that went in.

&uot;Matthew did a good job on him,&uot; Cathedral head coach Peter Arnold said. &uot;He’s tough. He’s 6-6, and he’s got long arms. When he wasn’t blocking our shots, he was intimidating to us. We were forcing some bad shots because of his shot-blocking ability.&uot;

Hall guarded him in the man, which the Wave played for almost the entire game, although at least two if not three players collapsed on Thompson down low when the Chiefs fed him the ball.

Thompson had just one bucket in the overtime and one in the fourth quarter. He tipped one in at the start of the fourth to spark a 7-0 run to get the Chiefs back in the game.

&uot;We had problems with that big guy, but our rebounding picked up a lot in the second half,&uot; Hall said. &uot;In the fourth quarter they picked up their defense, but we made some clutch baskets in overtime.&uot;

THAT’S CLUTCH &045; Matthew Hall can clinch his teeth and admit in the fewest syllables possible how his Cathedral Green Wave’s team lost to rival St. Aloysius. The junior missed free throws in the final moments of a 60-57 Flashes win in Natchez.

So the junior went to work.

When the opportunity presented itself again, he nailed them both in a win over Bogue Chitto. Then on Friday when he went to the line with the Wave holding a 42-40 lead over Pelahatchie with nine seconds left in overtime, he came through again.

He knocked both down to make it a two-possession game.

&uot;Ever since that St. Al game, it’s been driving me crazy,&uot; Hall said. &uot;I’ve worked hard on my free throws. I have gotten a lot better. Everybody’s confidence has gotten really high. Everybody’s working on their shooting.&uot;