Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

 

If at first you don’t succeed, try the second half.

The St. Joseph Flyers struggled offensively in the first half, but they recovered to score 45 points in the second half as they beat the New Boston Tigers 68-39 on Saturday.

“We did a good job defensively the first half and we took care of the ball, we just didn’t put the ball in the basket,” said Flyers’ coach Jeremy Williams.

“The second half we picked it up. Troy (Scott) brought a lot of energy in the third quarter and got us going.”

The Flyers shot 20 of 57 for the game from the field, but only 7 of 30 in the first half. They had only four turnovers in the first half and nine for the game.

Justin Mahlmeister had 29 points — he was 13 of 15 at the line — along with 7 rebounds and 8 steals to lead the Flyers (4-6). Eli Lewis had 10 points, 4 rebounds and 3 blocked shots.

Shane Buckley scored 15 points and Brendan Herrforth 10 for New Boston.

Mahlmeister and Lewis combined for 9 points in the first quarter as St. Joseph took a 14-13 lead. Buckley had 7 points for the Tigers.

The Flyers outscored New Boston 9-7 in the second quarter to lead 23-20 at the break. Mahlmeister scored 8 of the 9 points.

Mahlmeister had 9 more points in the third quarter to offset 7 by Buckley and St. Joseph extended the lead to 44-35.

The Flyers began to pull away in the fourth quarter with Mahlmeister scoring 7 points. Cole Willis came off the bench to get 5 points.

St. Joseph was 12 of 12 from the line in the fourth quarter.

New Boston 13 7 15 4 = 39

St. Joseph 14 9 21 24 = 68

NEW BOSTON (1-10): Shane Buckley 3 1 6-7 15, Brendan Herrforth 5 0 0-2 10, Austin Raines 0 0 2-4 2, Nate Payton 1 0 0-1 2, Tyler Shankwiler 0 0 0-0 0, Michael Taylor 0 0 0-0 0, James Spicer 1 0 0-0 2, A. Lite 0 0 0-0 0, T. Steele 2 1 1-4 8, E. Borter 0 0 0-0 0, L. Jordan 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12 2 9-18 39. Fouls: 22. Fouled out: Buckley, Herrforth, Payton.

ST. JOSEPH (4-6): Hunter Pemberton 1 0 0-0 2, Grant Geswein 1 1 2-2 7, Cole Willis 1 0 3-3 5, Kyle Williams 0 0 0-0 0, Chris Lewis 0 0 0-0 0, Troy Scott 3 0 1-2 7, Eli Lewis 5 0 0-4 10, Joseph Payton 1 0 3-4 5, Justin Mahlmeister 5 2 13-15 29, Lane Johnson 0 0 3-4 3, Trey Young 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 20-57 25-34 68. 3-point goals: 3-16. Rebounds: 19 (Mahlmeister 7, E. Lewis 4). Assists: 11 (Scott 3). Steals: 21 (Mahlmeister 8, Scott 4). Blocked shots: 5 (E. Lewis 3). Turnovers: 9. Fouls: 19. Fouled out: None.