Salmen’s Chelsie James scored 17 points, helping her team pull off a 51-43 victory over Albany Wednesday in a physical contest on the first day of the fourth annual SSA Invitational Tournament.

The Lady Spartans, who never trailed, moved to 4-3, while Albany is 6-7.

Salmen got off to a good start and led 22-9 at halftime, but the Lady Spartans could not put the Lady Hornets away.

Salmen'€™s Chelsie James (10) looks to make a move on Albany'€™s Taylor Bankston (35) during the opening game at the St. Scholastica Academy tournament Wednesday. (Staff Photo by Chris Kinkaid)

“I thought earlier we should’ve gotten a bigger lead,” Salmen coach Kevin Anderson said. “Even though we held them to only nine points, we had excellent defense, but the offense just didn’t get the big, big lead like I wanted. In the third quarter, they got very physical. It became a physical push-and-shove game, and that’s where they got the advantage back.”

In the third quarter, Albany took control. Ashley Bates and Taylor Bankston each hit buckets to make it 22-13.

Samara Dingiswayo and Rica Smith both split free throws for Salmen, and the Lady Spartans led 24-13 with 6:24 left. Julie Patterson hit for Albany, making it 24-15.

With 5:13 left in the third quarter, a Salmen player was assessed two technical fouls for arguing and was ejected.

That began a 12-4 spurt for Albany. Bankston, who posted 13 points, began the run by splitting the four-technical free throws.

Salmen led 28-27 with 1:51 left in the third period.

Then the Lady Spartans got the momentum back. James split a pair from the line, Dingiswayo, who scored 16 points, hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key, then Smith gave Salmen a 34-27 advantage with a two.

Albany’s Rakita Harris hit a shot with three seconds left to make it 34-29 as the teams headed to the fourth quarter.

In the final period, Salmen regained the seven-point lead when James hit a shot, then Albany hit 1-of-2 from the charity stripe.

Dingiswayo scored to make it 38-30, but Albany kept fighting back, going on an 11-4 run, but the Lady Spartans still held a 42-41 lead with 2:27 left.

The score stayed that way until the 1:02 mark when Dingiswayo hit a shot and got fouled. She couldn’t complete the 3-point play, but she gave her team a 44-41 edge.

Patterson came down for Albany and knocked down a pair of free throws with 52.2 left, trimming it to 44-43.

The Lady Spartans were sent to the line down the stretch and hit 7-of-8 over the final 49.9 seconds to clinch the win.

Smith recorded 15 points for Salmen.

In other tournament action:

Pope John Paul II (6-4) collected a forfeit win over John McDonogh.

In the third game, St. Scholastica Academy defeated Thomas Jefferson, 51-8.

Monique Giarrusso led SSA with 11 points, while Sarah Bagley scored eight.

The final game of Wednesday saw John Ehret beat Mandeville, 49-42. MHS is 2-6 this season.

Chelsie Sparks led MHS with 10 points. Amy Howard and Hannah Tracey each tallied nine and Karin Hicks recorded eight.