The St. Aloysius Lady Flashes’ hustle and focus in a tough, physical basketball game wasn’t quite enough to pull out a win Thursday.

Madison Klein scored 17 points and Krista Stephens added 16 as St. Andrew’s beat the Lady Flashes 51-42. St. Al rallied from a 12-point deficit in the third quarter to take the lead early in the fourth, but couldn’t hang on.

Brooklyn Breithaupt led St. Al with 16 points, followed by Olivia Curtis with 12.

“I was very proud of the basketball we played in the second half,” St. Al coach Gary Post said.

The start of the third quarter had St. Andrew’s immediately upping its lead to 36-24 before the Lady Flashes got hot and whittled it down to one by going on a 12-1 run.

St. Al took a 39-37 lead — its first, and only, lead in the game — on the first basket of the fourth quarter, but St. Andrews hit a similar hot streak to the one St. Al saw in the third and went on a 12-0 run to go back in front for good..

Post said the hard fought game came from both teams seeing this as a chance to win. As proud as he was of his team, he sees a lot of areas where they can improve heading into Saturday’s district game against Hartfield Academy. St. Al will host the game, which begins at 6 p.m.

“We need to find a man-to-man offense before Saturday that we’re comfortable with, that the girls trust,” Post said.

He said the team needs to work on trust first before it can master other aspects of the game. Eventually, he wants them to figure out their opponent’s weaknesses and adjust during games.

“We haven’t gotten to that level yet. We’re still at the level of trusting each other and trusting the coach and the coach trusting his players, which deals with a lot of fundamentals,” Post said.

St. Andrew’s led 32-22 at halftime, but the Lady Flashes won the third quarter 14-5 to tie it heading into the fourth.

However, fatigue plus a couple of shots by Stephens had the teams reverse roles in the fourth quarter as the Lady Saints outscored the Lady Flashes 14-6.

(B) St. Andrews 78, St. Aloysius 33

Both teams came out ready to play, but early foul trouble by St. Al gave St. Andrews the room to quickly run away.

The Saints opened the game on an 18-2 run and held St. Al to one field goal in the first quarter. Three of St. Al’s five first quarter points were free throws. St. Andrew’s led 31-5 at the end of the period.

“We’ve grown. We’re not where I want to be, but we’re getting there,” St. Al coach Eddie Pickle said. “I had one of my starters (Coleman Verhine) break a hand so he didn’t get to play.”

At the end of the first quarter, St. Al’s Jaylen Whitaker and Antonio Thompson had three fouls each. Whitaker got a fourth foul in the second half, and Sean Simpson ended the night with three.

A technical foul called on the St. Al bench with 3 minutes left in the first quarter set the tone for the rest of the game.

With the Saints hitting their stride, there was no reining them in during the second quarter. They led 60-18 at the half.

“The first half, we didn’t score. It was like there was a lid on the bucket. Could not get them to drop. Those shots we normally make,” Pickle said. “It could have been rust. We practiced four times over the holidays. I don’t know. They just wouldn’t drop. Our guys hate that goal.”

Nick Council led St. Al with 11 points, followed by Tyler Lewis with nine. St. Andrew’s spread out its scoring among 13 players. Christian Scott led the way with 13 points and three other players scored nine each.

“Our kids didn’t quit. They played hard the whole ballgame even though we were down 40,” Pickle said. “I’m proud that they did not stop.”