JACKSON — At some point, St. Aloysius vs. University Christian ceased being a basketball game and morphed into slapstick.

The two teams took turns mishandling the basketball as if it were slathered in Crisco and shot it like a lead weight. The referee’s whistle halted the game every few seconds to cue up another soft chuckle from the crowd, as much as to indicate the latest in an endless string of jump balls and fouls.

In the final act, University Christian pieced together a few minutes of highbrow basketball to bring an end to the two-hour funfest, using a late run to push past the Lady Flashes 64-55 in the opening game of the Hillcrest Christian tournament.

The teams combined to shoot 83 free throws off of 60 fouls, and only made half of them. St. Al committed 29 turnovers, while University Christian had 27.

“I think it was because both teams were hustling so hard they’d go to the floor and it’d be a jump ball. Both teams were making stupid fouls,” St. Al’s Allie Willis, who led her team with 17 points and five steals, said of the sloppy play.

If the game wasn’t pretty, but it was competitive. University Christian (2-4) twice rallied from double-digit deficits in the first half to take a 42-40 lead into the fourth quarter. St. Al (2-4) again crept out to a 52-46 advantage with four minutes to play, but the Lady Flames had one final surge.

Lauren McDaniel hit a free throw and then a layup to give University Christian a 55-52 lead, and it went on to finish the game on an 18-3 run. McDaniel led UCS with 16 points and 11 rebounds, while Rachel Wilson scored a game-high 23 points.

Ellie Welp had nine points and 15 rebounds for St. Al, which went 24-for-44 from the foul line.

“They made their free throws and we didn’t,” St. Al coach Cookie Johnson said.