Natchez &8212; Cathedral&8217;s boys and girls basketball teams opened their seasons against

Loyd Star Thursday night with decidedly mixed results.

The girls struggled to find offensive rhythm in falling to the young but talented Lady Hornets 56-27, while the boys rode a last-minute surge to nip their AA counterparts 56-53.

Both girls&8217; teams struggled early, combining for just 11 points in the first quarter. Loyd Start took a 24-11 edge into the break.

&8220;We shot ourselves in the foot,&8221; Cathedral coach Kathy Graning said. &8220;We had some good offensive opportunities but couldn&8217;t make the shots. If we had made some, it might have been a little different.&8221;

Even trailing, Cathedral appeared to be in good shape after the Lady Hornets&8217; star forward Hailey Ratcliff sat down with her third foul with two minutes remaining in the first.

The team&8217;s captain and leading scorer was on the bench for the entire quarter.

The stalemate continued through the first part of the second quarter until Claire Kenda brought the Lady Wave to within 9-7.

From there two freshman led the Lady Hornets on a 12-point run that put them comfortably ahead 24-11 at the break.

The freshmen were guard Shannon Chester and forward Haley Sones. Chester started the quarter with a deuce and ended it with a 3-pointer and Sones showed nice moves inside as the Lady Hornet offense got warmed up.

Chester finished the game with 11 points, four steals and two rebounds and admitted she hadn&8217;t been as confident as she appeared on the court.

Cathedral didn&8217;t score until the 2:32 mark of the third quarter, by which time they found themselves trailing 38-13.

Radcliff scored six of her game-high 17 points on the surge to open the half, she said she was glad to see that her young teammates were able to play well without her on the floor.

&8220;It surprised me and gave me a lot of confidence in our team.&8221;

The Lady Green Wave had a scary moment in the third quarter when Kristian Dobard went down clutching her already taped right ankle. She was helped to the bench and later returned to the game.

Kenda led Cathedral with 11 points.

The boys team no doubt wishes it could bottle it&8217;s fourth quarter performance for future use.

After trailing by as many as 12 points, Cathedral got its offense going and took advantage of Loyd Star&8217;s inexperience in coming from behind to win just before the buzzer.

Alex Middleton scored his 17th, and biggest, point of the night on his second free throw with 20 seocnds left in the game to give Cathedral its first lead since early in the first quarter.

&8220;I had just missed two in a row and there was no way I was going to miss three,&8221; he said.

Middleton had previously had a chance to get three points the hard way after a lay-up off a half-court steal but missed the free throw with :41 left to leave the game tied at 53.

Matt Goss led CHS with 16 points.