FLOWOOD — When their lead dwindled to a precious few points, the St. Aloysius Lady Flashes restored it to a much more comfortable margin by doing what got them there in the first place — hitting 3-pointers, rebounding and playing outstanding defense.

Brooklyn Breithaupt’s 3-pointer at the third-quarter buzzer keyed a decisive run, and St. Al shut out Hartfield Academy in the fourth quarter Saturday to win 45-27.

It was a welcome victory for St. Al, which was outscored 38-14 in the second half of a loss to Cathedral on Friday night.

“A lot of times we’ll come out strong and then lay back some. It was nice to be able to keep it up the whole game. I think we had the lead the whole game,” said Grace Upshaw, who led St. Al with 14 points, seven rebounds and four steals. “This was a good win. Not just because it was a conference game, but because we were able to play good altogether.”

Breithaupt scored 11 points for St. Al (4-3, 2-1 District 3-AAA). Michelle Howington had 14 points, and together with Upshaw they led a long-range assault that powered the Lady Flashes all afternoon.

The three players combined to hit seven 3-pointers, including six in the first half.

“We were going in the first quarter and then they started playing man on us. We tried to go around that and started going in the lane,” Howington said.

The barrage from 3-point range helped St. Al take a 30-22 lead midway through the third quarter, but a quick spurt by Hartfield cut it to a single possession. A 3-pointer by Miranda Edwards pulled the Lady Hawks within three, at 30-27, with about a minute left in the period.

Upshaw then came up with a steal and layup, and Breithaupt nailed her 3-pointer at the buzzer to push the lead back to 35-27. The Lady Flashes pulled away from there by outscoring Hartfield 10-0 over the final eight minutes.

St. Al’s strong rebounding effort kept Hartfield to one shot on most of the possessions where it actually did shoot. Just as many ended in turnovers.

“They executed the offense, they played together and we knocked down shots. We played an all-around game,” St. Al coach Delvin Thompson said. “We went over boxing out and giving them one shot at the basket, and talked about some things before the game that got us going.”

(B) Hartfield 62, St. Aloysius 36

Hartfield started the game by scoring the first 10 points and it didn’t get any better from there for St. Al (0-6, 0-3 District 3-AAA), which remained winless and lost by more than 25 points for the second time in less than 24 hours.

The Flashes lost by 43 on Friday night at home against Cathedral.

Hartfield started the game with a 10-0 run, then used another 10-0 run early in the second quarter to push its lead to 23 points. The Hawks led by 39 at halftime. Although St. Al outscored Hartfield 23-10 in the second half, it was mostly against the Hawks’ backups and with a running clock. The Flashes never threatened to get back in the game.

Jerrian Young led Hartfield (9-3) with 13 points, and Matt Sykes had 10 rebounds. Hartfield had 16 steals.

Braxton Chewning hit four 3-pointers and led St. Al with 14 points. Joshua Brown added 12, while Jaylen Whitaker had seven points and 10 rebounds.

“We’ve got a new team, and we’re going to have to start from scratch. We are working. We’ll have a good half and then the next thing you know we’ll shut down. We can’t do that. We’ve got to keep chipping at it and keep working,” Thompson said. “A lot of them haven’t played basketball, and I think a lot of the frustration comes from not understanding basketball. We’ve got a team full of football players, and players who have never played under me. Right now we’re rebuilding and learning. Monday, we’re breaking out the cones.”