By Steve Wilson

Vicksburg Post

NATCHEZ — Friday’s game pitting St. Aloysius and Cathedral was a retro night, with the Lady Flashes wearing new powder blue throwback uniforms styled after those worn by St. Francis Xavier Academy in the late 1950s.

The scoreboard seemed frozen in time as well. Cathedral led at the half 13-12. St Al went nearly 10 minutes at one point without a field goal and the two teams didn’t cross the combined 40-point threshold until the fourth quarter.

Cathedral scrapped together a late 8-1 run in the final 1:09 to earn a 34-28 Division 7-1A win.

St. Al finally grabbed the lead with 2:17 remaining. Ann Garrison Thomas, who finished with a game-high 18 points, scored in transition on a layup and hit a short jumper in the lane to give St. Al its first lead of the second half.

But from there, it was all Cathedral. Auka Kumi converted a putback in traffic, but couldn’t convert a plus-one opportunity. Crystal Beckwith and Kumi scored on layups and Taylor Beesley finished the run by converting two at the free-throw line.

“We were missing layup after layup after layup,” Cathedral coach Randy Smith said. “Then we finally hit three in a row and it actually put us up where we could relax and play halfcourt man (defense.) I was happy with our girls’ effort on defense. That’s what won this game.”

St. Al (6-8, 1-2) had its chances, as Thomas hit 1-of-2 free throws and Klaire Miller had a steal, but missed the layup with Cathedral leading 32-28.

The seeds of St. Al’s demise were planted at the charity stripe, as the Lady Flashes went 6-for-18 in the second half.

“I don’t think they were mentally prepared to beat Cathedral today,” St. Al coach Cookie Johnson said. “We were down four when I realized we had missed 12 free throws. You have to have those to win a tight game like this.”

Cathedral led at the end of one, 8-6 and at the break, 13-12. Thomas hit a one-and-one opportunity to give the Lady Flashes a brief 14-13 lead that would be their last lead before the final two minutes.

Beesley led Cathedral (5-11, 1-0) with 10 points, while Kumi added nine.

St. Aloysius boys 68,

Cathedral 48

St. Aloysius blew open a one-point game with a second-half surge to earn a Division 7-1A win over Cathedral.

Elliott Bexley had a huge night, leading the Flashes with 27 points. Matthew Foley added 18 points and Connor Smith contributed 15.

“We executed,” St. Al coach Delvin Thompson said. “We don’t run with people, but we execute. Our point guard (Smith) did a great job of recognizing when and when not to run. We played together.”

Playing their first game without leading scorer Jarrell Johnson, the Green Wave (6-11, 0-2) got a season-high 27 points from R.J. Givens, but he got little help from his teammates.

“We never stopped them, the whole game,” Cathedral coach Peter Arnold said. “We didn’t play well enough defensively and one guy scored for us and that was about it. They had probably had a dozen points off turnovers and turning them into breakaway layups. That’s inexcusable. You can’t do that and win a game.”