Flashes make noise in sweep of Richland|[11/22/2005]
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, November 22, 2005
The St. Aloysius basketball teams made plenty of noise Monday night with a pair of victories that drowned out the rat-a-tat-tat of the school’s pep band.
The Lady Flashes remained unbeaten, taking a 49-39 decision from Richland Monday night at St. Al, while the boys made it a sweet home opener, beating Richland 79-71 in double overtime behind a combined 51 points from Chase Smith and Marsh Willis.
Class 3A Richland used a box-and-one defense on St. Al’s top scorer, Annie Beaugh, and managed to take a 35-29 lead after a 3-pointer from Darletta Johnson late in the third quarter.
A basket by Kaitlyn Ellis helped pull St. Al (5-0) to within two, at 35-33, heading into the fourth quarter.
There, Annie Beaugh took over, scoring 10 of her game-high 25 points to complete the Lady Flashes’ comeback win.
“We knew, having played them before, that they like to run different defenses,” Beaugh said. “When they put the box-and-one on me, I started to run the baseline and that left Sarah (Kerut) open. With us, you’ve got to guard everybody.”
St. Al beat Richland 61-51 in the season opener as Beaugh scored 33. Despite a quick start by Beaugh with nine points, St. Al found the going tough over the next two quarters.
“We got stagnant on offense and had some lapses on defense,” second-year St. Al coach Drew McBrayer said. “But we fought back and were able to turn the corner by getting some easy baskets.”
Down 37-36, Beaugh scored St. Al’s next eight points, turning the deficit into a 5-point lead at 44-39. In the stretch, she made two baskets off offensive rebounds, another off an 18-foot jumper and then finished off the spurt with a running, one-hander.
Still up six, Elizabeth Mazzanti knocked in both ends of a one-and-one to seal it with 28.6 seconds left.
Kerut ended with 10 points while Johnson led Richland with 14.
“We weren’t rebounding that well in the first half but we did better in the second half and played better defense,” Beaugh said.
(B) St. Al 79, Richland 71
This was the kind of game St. Al (3-2) would likely have lost last year. The Flashes broke out to a 14-point lead early in the second quarter only to see the Rangers go on a 17-2 run to take the lead by halftime, 31-30.
It was close from there on. Willis hit two free throws with 8.9 seconds left to put St. Al up 62-60. Richland answered when Tony Boyd drove the lane, hitting a hook shot to send the game into overtime, tied at 62.
St. Al was down three with 20 seconds to go in the first overtime when Chris Johnson hit a 3-pointer to tie it at 69, sending the game into a second overtime.
There, the Flashes finally used their size advantage, getting four points from the 6-foot-3 Smith to take a 73-71 lead. Willis then took a defensive rebound all the way down for a key basket to put the Flashes up 76-71 with 1 minute, 9 seconds left.
“We jumped out quick on them and then we went away from what got us the lead,” McBrayer said. “By the overtime, we finally got it back to what I wanted which was to pound it and pound again inside.”
Smith finished with a game-high 27 points, which included going 13-of-19 from the line. Willis had 24 and Johnson scored 16 points.
Boyd led Richland with 23 and T.J. Bradford had 20.
(G) VHS 62, Yazoo City 52
The play of the post players made the difference for the Vicksburg Missy Gators on Monday as Rachel Jenkins scored a game-high 18 points and Kristin Ellis netted 15 in a victory over Yazoo City.
Kendra Sims added 11 as the Missy Gators improved to 4-2 on the season.