St. Aloysius coach Delvin Thompson is pretty excited about his girls basketball team being in the playoffs.

Thompson helped oversee a complete overhaul of the hoops program at St. Al, and his and his players’ hard work is finally being rewarded with a trip to the Class 1A Tournament for the first time since 2007 — although they’ll have to wait just a bit to enjoy it.

The Lady Flashes were scheduled to play at Sebastopol tonight, but the game has been postponed until Wednesday at 7 p.m. because of wintry weather moving across Mississippi.

Once they do get back on the court, Thompson and the Lady Flashes know they’ll have to scrap to keep their season alive.

“We’re going to have to fight. It’s going to be tough on the road. We’re just going to have to fight,” Thompson said. “That’s what I tell them. You’ve got to keep fighting.”

The Lady Flashes are used to that.

Despite losing their last two games in the Division 7-1A Tournament, St. Al scrapped back from double-digit deficits to make games out of their two defeats to Pelahatchie and Cathedral. Thompson is hoping that tenacity shows itself early as his squad looks to win a playoff game for the first time in nearly a decade.

The Lady Flashes fell behind 11-0 in the first four minutes to Cathedral in their last game, and Thompson knows that can’t happen for them to have a shot at pulling off the upset against Sebastopol.

“They will have to come out with a lot of intensity,” he said. “We’re playing on the road and we will have to play as a team. We will have to stay focused on both ends of the floor.”

Division 6-1A champion Sebastapol (21-3) is known for jumping on opponents early, and St. Al will have to combat the Bobcats’ quick start by taking care of the basketball and putting together clean possessions.

“We have to get them going a little bit, but I think they want to win,” Thompson said. “I’ll prepare them as a coach and scout (Sebastapol) and see where we go from there.”

The boys’ team will need to do much of the same.

As a No. 4 seed, the Flashes will also go on the road and take on No. 1 seed Durant (19-8) Tuesday at 7 p.m. It’s a matchup Thompson thinks could be favorable to his squad, which is finally all together after being parceled out to the football team for the first half of the season.

“They’ve only been playing a month and a half together, so we basically have a brand new team,” Thompson said. “We’ll practice hard. We’ll go over some stuff in practice and I’ll talk to them and we’ll go from there.”

The Flashes fell 89-84 to Dexter at home in the first round of last year’s Class 1A Tournament. Thompson believes this year’s group has what it takes to go on the road and win.

“It’s great to have home court advantage, but you’ve still got to win,” he said. “We’re just trying to advance. We’ve been about six points away the past two years.”

With a full roster in place, St. Al has embraced the underdog role with hopes of shaking up the bracket Tuesday night.

“(They’re) excited about the postseason,” Thompson said. “Hopefully we can play well and come out with a win.”

Class 1A Tournament

Tuesday – Boys

7 p.m. – St. Al at Durant

Wednesday – Girls

7 p.m. – St. Al at Sebastopol