On a spring-like afternoon outside, the St. Aloysius Lady Flashes brightened up what was fast becoming a long, dreary winter inside their gym.

Michelle Howington’s rebound basket with nine seconds left capped a big second-half comeback, and the Lady Flashes hung on to beat Greenville-St. Joe 35-33 on Saturday.

Howington finished with 19 points and 14 rebounds as St. Al won for just the second time in 14 games this season.

“With the season we’ve had, we haven’t really had a lot of close games. It’s nice to be able to compete with somebody, and then it’s nice to be able to win. We didn’t get blown out and we didn’t lose. That’s two great feelings, especially when you’ve only won one game so far,” St. Al coach Gary Post said.

Brooklyn Breithaupt and Elise Piazza scored five points apiece for St. Al, and Kyla Goodlow grabbed seven rebounds. As a team, St. Al had 17 offensive rebounds.

Greenville St. Joe was led by Meke Sandifer with 11 points, and Carson Manious and Ashont Brown with eight each.

The Lady Irish led 19-11 at halftime, but St. Al used a slow motion run to get back in the game. The Lady Flashes scored seven of their first nine points in the second half at the free throw line, with Howington hitting a pair with 4:30 left to give them a 20-19 lead.

Howington was 6-for-8 from the foul line in the third quarter.

St. Al led 26-23 heading into the fourth quarter, and the teams went back-and-forth from there. Curtis scored two baskets to put St. Al up 33-30 with 90 seconds left, but St. Joe tied it with three free throws over the span of 47 seconds.

Howington missed two shots that could have given St. Al the lead with less than 30 seconds to go, but Manious missed two free throws on St. Joe’s ensuing possession.

With the score still tied at 33, St. Al got the ball. Piazza took a short jumper that was off the mark, but Howington was there to rebound it and put it back up and in to give the Lady Flashes a 35-33 lead with nine seconds to go.

St. Joe tried to rush the ball up the court in the final seconds, but never got a shot off.

“It’s weird. That’s never really happened to me before. It was great to make that,” Howington said of her game-winner. “I was going to get that. It was going to be either me or Brooklyn (Breithaupt) that got it. It’s a great win.

(B) Greenville-St. Joe 58, St. Al 51

St. Al’s frantic comeback attempt in the last two minutes Saturday came up short, and Greenville-St. Joe headed back up Highway 61 with a victory over its Catholic school rival.

St. Al trailed by 12 points with just under two minutes to go when Tyler Lewis hit the last of his three 3-pointers to cut it to 56-47. The Flashes got two more baskets to get within five, but St. Joe’s Dillon Johnson finally shut the lid on the rally with a steal and layup with 30 seconds to go.

The Flashes committed a turnover and Lewis missed a 3-pointer with 10 seconds left.

“The kids showed me some guts tonight,” St. Al coach Eddie Pickle said. “They showed pride and didn’t quit. I’ve been pounding that into them all year. People don’t like moral victories, but I’ll take those.”

Jonathan Jordan led the Irish (7-4) with 17 points, and Jo’Quez Sanders scored 11.

For St. Al (6-9), Lewis finished with a team-high 11 points. Nicholaus Council scored 10, Braxton Chewning had eight, and Jaylen Whitaker grabbed 13 rebounds.