Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

 

The St. Joseph Female Flyers knew what the question was before the game began. The problem was finding the solution.

Peighton Williams scored 36 points to lead the Portsmouth Lady Trojans to a 64-55 win over the St. Joseph Female Flyers.

“I knew coming in they had some athletic players. Williams is a real nice player. We didn’t have an answer for her. She’s the best player we’ve faced,” said Female Flyers’ coach Nick Miller.

The job of stopping Williams was made more difficult because Wesleigh Jackson scored 17 points for Portsmouth.

Hannah Miller scored 24 points and Amber Neal had 21 points to lead the Female Flyers (9-5).

“We had some good performances offensively. Defensively, we ran every defense we had but we just couldn’t stop the Williams girl,” said coach Miller.

Miller and Neal combined for 13 points in the first quarter as St. Joseph took a 14-10 lead.

The Female Flyers built a 10-point lead on two occasions in the second quarter, but Miller and Lynsey Booker was saddled with two fouls and St. Joseph had to switch to a zone defense to protect their starters.

Booker scored seven points in the second quarter and Miller five, but Williams had 10 points and the lead was cut to 30-27 at the half.

Jackson hit a pair of 3-pointers and scored eight points to match the Female Flyers’ output in the third quarter and Portsmouth took a 44-38 lead.

“The third quarter killed us,” said coach Miller.

Miller scored 10 points and Neal seven in the fourth quarter, but Williams had 17 points including 11-of-12 at the foul line.

St. Joseph hosts Manchester at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Portsmouth 10 17 17 20 = 64

St. Joseph 14 16 8 17 = 55

PORTSMOUTH (2-13): Tamara Parker 0, Baleigh Bradley 0, Faythe Lee 0 0 2-2 2, Wesleigh Jackson 2 4 1-2 17, Peighton Williams 9 0 18-22 36, Jada Jenkins 3 0 3-4 9, Mya Williams 0 0 0-0 0, Skylar Blair 0 0 0-0 0, Semajah Parker 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 4 24-30 64. Fouls: 27. Fouled out: Jackson, Jenkins.

ST. JOSEPH (9-5): Katie Roach 0 0 2-2 2, Amber Neal 8 1 2-2 21, Hannah Miller 6 2 6-6 24, Haley Bartram 0 0 0-0 0, Bri Bridges 0 0 0-6 0, Molly Miller 0 0 0-0 0, Rachel Martin 0 0 0-0 0, Lynsey Booker 2 0 4-9 8. Totals: 16 3 14-25 55. Fouls: 20. Fouled out: H. Miller, Booker.