NATCHEZ &8212; Right now it&8217;s just going to be conversion process for the Trinity Episcopal Saints.

How else could you explain it? For a team that had no shooter earlier in the season, the Saints canned five 3-pointers with four coming in the third quarter. And their defense was perhaps the key reason the stayed in the ball game Saturday against a solid Columbia Academy squad.

But when the free throws rattled out down the stretch and short jump shots just didn&8217;t want to fall throughout the game, it may have drove home the fact that Saints are still in football mode. Columbia came away with a 47-44 win to hand Trinity its first loss in District 4-AA play.

&8220;I was pleased with the effort, but I just don&8217;t have too many basketball players,&8221; Trinity head coach David King said. &8220;I&8217;m very pleased with the guts and the effort, but that doesn&8217;t help if you can&8217;t do the small things.

&8220;They&8217;ve got a very good basketball team, and I&8217;m always saying this &8212; we&8217;ve got five football players running around and hustling but they&8217;re not able to make 8- to 10-foot jumpers and free throws. It&8217;s clear we&8217;re not making it any easier on ourselves.&8221;

The Saints may be deeper this year than they&8217;ve been in past seasons, and it may have allowed King to run fresh legs in and out of the game as the deficit dwindled down from 11 in the first half to a tie ball game at the start of the fourth quarter.

The Saints battled back to tie the score at 44 with 41 seconds left when Tripp Bryant scored the second of two big buckets in the final two minutes, but from there things went dry. They had to put Columbia on the line twice, and Orry Thomas hit one of two with 18.5 seconds left before Warren Lott knocked down both with 11 seconds left.

The Saints called timeout with eight seconds left to set up a play on an in-bounds from mid-court, but Stevan Ridley&8217;s 3-point attempt at the buzzer hit nothing but iron.

&8220;They&8217;re a tough team and strong defensively,&8221; Columbia head coach Reid McCay said. &8220;Coach King does a good job. Free throws and layups &8212; they&8217;re easy shots, and you&8217;ve got to hit them. We didn&8217;t tonight. We&8217;ve been playing well, but good defenses have a way of making you look bad. (Stevan) Ridley is tough, but they had some other kids hit some shots that I really wasn&8217;t expecting.&8221;

The Saints got hot from the perimeter and took advantage of the Cougars&8217; defense that centered around Ridley underneath the basket. Columbia upped its lead to 28-17 early in the third quarter before Trinity could get a score, but Parker Brumfield nailed the first of his two 3-pointers for the quarter to open things up.

Jon Davis King hit one, and the two each knocked down another with Davis&8217; second one trimming the lead to 32-30 at the 3:40 mark. Ridley hit one of two free throws, and Davis hit one of three free throws that tied the score at 32.

Those three misses, another earlier in the quarter and eventually three in the fourth quarter sealed the Saints&8217; fate. But Columbia wasn&8217;t much better with a 1-of-7 effort from the line in the second half up until the final seconds of the game.

&8220;We were able to make a few, and they did a good job of packing down on our big men,&8221; King said. &8220;We hit some shots to get our team back. Basically, it was a game we probably were not supposed to win but physically had a chance to win. I guess that&8217;s what it comes down to &8212; the inability to make free throws. They had two guys who could create their own shots, and we don&8217;t have anyone to do that.&8221;

The 3-pointers fueled an offense that was centered around Ridley early, and the Cougars with big Dustin Hoffer inside had the ability to match up. Ridley&8217;s only bucket of the third came late when his bucket tied the score at 39, but Travis Pace&8217;s bucket with 41 seconds left gave Columbia a 36-34 lead after three.

&8220;They went four in a row (3-pointers),&8221; McCay said. &8220;It was a low-scoring game up until that point. We were playing a diamond-and-one, and we switched to a man. We didn&8217;t all get that message for two trips.&8221;