On Tuesday, St. Aloysius was in sixth place in Division 7-1A.

By the end of Wednesday, it was fifth, and by Friday it could be fourth. At this rate, the Flashes will be division champions by the end of next week.

Luke Burnett scored a career-high 29 points, Ford Biedenharn had 16 points and 10 rebounds, and St. Al demolished the Mississippi School for the Deaf 75-36 on Wednesday night.

The victory locked up the No. 5 seed for St. Al in next week’s division tournament, which it hosts. The Flashes (6-14, 3-6 in division play) can move up another spot by beating Bogue Chitto in the regular-season finale on Friday, but they’ll play Cathedral in the opening round whether they’re fourth or fifth.

“A district win is a district win. We won last night, won tonight, and have an opportunity to win again Friday,” St. Al coach Richard Hodges said. “We still have our moments, but we’re getting tournament-ready. That’s what the season has been all about, is the tournament.”

After hitting six of its first nine shots and taking a three-point lead at the end of the first quarter, MSD (4-16, 0-9) went 10-for-40 from the field the rest of the game. St. Al outscored MSD 62-20 over the last three quarters.

“That’s their M.O. You just have to close them out and wear them down, and then they start missing 20-foot shots and it catches up to them at the end,” Hodges said.

Although the Flashes were aided by MSD’s subpar effort, they did plenty to help themselves. St. Al used a slew of easy transition baskets to take the lead in the second quarter, then outscored MSD 24-6 in the third. The Flashes took a 57-32 lead into the fourth quarter, and kept adding to the lead.

Sean Johnson scored 14 points and Peter Halinski had eight points and eight rebounds for St. Al, which shot 54.7 percent from the field.

“They just stopped making everything they took and we started playing defense,” Burnett said. “We messed around the first half and didn’t get anything going consistently until the third quarter.”

 

(G) St. Al 54, MSD 47

St. Aloysius used runs at the end of the first and third quarters to gain some space from MSD, then hung on for a seven-point victory.

Tori Hines had a season-high 25 points and nine rebounds and Carlye Smith added 12 points, 14 rebounds and four steals for St. Al (6-14, 2-7). Ann Thomas scored 13 points and grabbed eight rebounds.

NeShara Joseph had 17 points and 10 rebounds for MSD (8-12, 0-7).

St. Al took the lead for good with a 10-0 run to end the first quarter, then ended the third with an 8-2 run after MSD had closed within a point. Hines and Smith each hit two shots during the second run, which put the Lady Flashes ahead 42-35. St. Al stretched the lead to as many as 11 in the fourth quarter.

Contact Ernest Bowker at ebowker@vicksburgpost.com