[11/26/02]A hot start and a hot hand from 3-point range carried Loyd Star to a win over St. Aloysius Monday night.

Loyd Star (6-0) made seven 3-pointers in the game, including five in the first half, and opened the game with a 13-0 run before cruising to an 86-56 win.

Five Loyd Star players scored in double figures, led by Jesse Sones’ 20-point, eight-rebound effort, and the Hornets outrebounded St. Al 36-19. Jason Brown led St. Al (0-4) with 16 points, Kyle Richards added 13, and Anthony Rector had nine.

Jamie Johnson had 12 points and eight rebounds for Loyd Star, and Sidney Chester and DeWayne Branning added 10 points each.

“We let them have such a big lead, and you can’t let them do that. It’s hard to come back every game, and we’ve done that every game,” St. Al coach Paul Hayden said.

Loyd Star seized control of the game from the get-go. The Hornets were 9-of-12 shooting in the first quarter, and 3-for-3 from 3-point range.

Point guard Jared Britt scored 10 of his 14 points in the first quarter as Loyd Star jumped out to a 13-0 lead in the first three minutes.

“That’s the best start we’ve had all year long,” Loyd Star coach Gene Britt said. “They started off in a man-to-man (defense), and it’s hard to guard us man-to-man.”

St. Al finally got on the board when Brown sank a free throw with 5:12 left in the first quarter, and the Flashes made a defensive adjustment that allowed them to get back in the game.

Using a 2-2-1 half-court trap defense, St. Al forced several turnovers and missed shots and was able to cut the deficit in half, to 22-15 early in the second quarter.

“We started playing as a team and moving the ball around instead of throwing it away and turning it over,” Brown said of the Flashes’ rally.

Just when it looked like the Flashes might get back into the game, however, Britt and the Hornets solved the trap and went on a 7-0 run to push the lead back to double figures.

St. Al never got the deficit back to single digits, and never threatened to do so.

The teams will meet again at Loyd Star next Tuesday.

(G) Loyd Star 57, St. Al 29

Loyd Star was the better-shooting team and came out on top in an ugly, turnover- and foul-filled game.

The teams combined for a whopping 80 turnovers 40 apiece and each team had four players finish with at least three fouls. St. Al shot just 27 percent from the field, however, and that turned out to be the difference in the game.

The Lady Flashes (0-4) failed to score more than eight points in any quarter as Loyd Star (4-3) rolled to a 16-point halftime lead and never looked back.

“I thought we played pretty well. The last three games, we have not played as a team, and tonight we played more as a team,” Hayden said.

“From a technical standpoint, no, we did not play well. We missed 12 shots in the first half that were either in the paint or a step outside the paint.”

Caitlin Moak led St. Al with 12 points, and Sarah Kerut added six points, six rebounds and six steals. Jamakia Henderson had a game-high 19 points to go along with four steals for Loyd Star, and Jordan Britt added 10 points and five steals.

Loyd Star led 13-8 after one quarter, then used a full-court press in the second to blow the game open. St. Al had 14 turnovers and was just 3-for-13 shooting in the second quarter, and was called for 15 fouls in the first half.

The Lady Hornets were nearly as sloppy, however. Despite leading 30-14 at halftime, Loyd Star had 20 turnovers in the first half and made only 12 of 20 free throws. In the second half, the Lady Hornets were called for 15 fouls.

“It was an ugly, rough game,” Loyd Star coach Lori Britt said. “It was the most physical game we’ve played all year. I thought the referees let it get out of hand.”