By CURTIS ROCKWELL/Sports Director

BILOXI — The St. Patrick girls moved into sole possession of first place in Region 8-3A this week.

The home-standing Lady Irish bounced arch-rival OLA 48-35 to move to a perfect 4-0 in the region race. St. Patrick also now stands a solid 16-4 overall as well, after winning its eighth straight game and the 10th win in its last 11 outings.

The Crescents suffered their first league loss of the season, and fell into second place in the region race at 4-1 and now sit at 15-4 overall after having their six game win streak stopped, Still, OLA has won 14 out of its last 16 outings.

The Lady Irish wasted no time in letting the visitors from Bay St. Louis know their intentions on the evening, as super sophomore standout Alex Patino scored five first quarter points including a 3-pointer and SPHS jumped out to a 13-5 lead at the end of the opening period.

Patino’s teammate Meredith Eleuterius repeated her outing for the first frame in the second stanza, with five points including a trey, and Lady Irish guard Natalie Gordon added four points as the home team maintained that eight point advantage heading into halftime at 26-18.

Taylor Henley and Valentina Mossy each dropped in a 3-pointer apiece in the second quarter for OLA helping the Crescents stay within striking distance going into the second half.

Patino was back at it in the third frame, as she tallied seven points and drained her second triple of the contest as SPHS slowly stretched its lead to double digits at 41-30 entering the final frame despite Henley scoring seven points as well including a trey of her own in the period.

OLA was able to slice the deficit to single digits only once down the stretch as St. Patrick sealed the win.

Patino continued her impressive performance this season with a game-high 21 points, while Gordon chipped in 13 points to the winning effort and Eleuterius added seven points.

Henley paced OLA with 14 points and Mossy added 10 points.

Both teams return to region action next as Friday night St. Patrick hosts West Marion and on Tuesday OLA travels to Tylertown.