Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

 

ROCKSPRINGS — First, the St Joseph Flyers played opossum. Then they played spoiler.

Playing at Beaver Eastern a little more than a week ago, the Flyers played bland in a loss to the Eagles. But on Wednesday, the Flyers showed their hand and upset the Eagles 50-49 to win the Division IV sectional tournament.

“We didn’t run our main stuff when we played them before. We still played hard and we still wanted to win the game, but we shot 10 of 54 and you’re not going to win many games shooting like that,” said Flyers’ coach Jeremy Williams.

The Flyers combined a well-executed offense with a stingy defense to get the win as Chris Lewis sank the second of two foul shots with five seconds left.

“We came out and jumped out on them running our normal offense. We had a good game plan and the guys stuck to it. Joseph Payton played an amazing game. When the game got tight at the end they held their composure. I was so happy for them,” said Williams.

Troy Scott had 13 points and eight rebounds for the Flyers. Joseph Payton had 12 points and Wulf Goheen added 11 points, four steals and three assists. Lewis grabbed six rebounds.

Ethan Leist scored 21 points to lead the Eagles who saw their 10-game winning streak snapped. Josh Thacker and Trace Creech added 10 points each.

“Troy did an awesome job on (Josh) Thacker. He’s an athlete and he shoots the ball well, so that was big,” said Williams “We defend pretty well. Eastern likes to get up and down and they get a lot of shots. We slowed the pace and limited their shots.”

The Flyers (13-10) play Leesburg Fairfield at 8 p.m. Monday in the district semifinals at Ohio University.

Thacker scored seven points as Eastern went up 13-12 in the first quarter. Hunter Pemberton and Payton had three points each.

Leist had nine points in the second quarter as Eastern took a 28-23 halftime lead.

Goheen scored seven points and Scott five in the third quarter as St. Joseph rallied to take a 42-38 lead. Leist had eight of Eastern’s 10 points.

With the game tied at 49, Lewis made his four shot to put the Flyers ahead. Eastern called a timeout to set up a lop, but the Flyers defended the play and forced the Eagles to attempt a long shot that was well off the mark.

St. Joseph 12 11 19 8 = 50

Eastern 13 15 10 11 = 49

ST. JOSEPH (13-10): Hunter Pemberton 4 0 1-2 9, Wulf Goheen 3 1 2-2 11, Kyle Williams 0 0 0-0 0, Chris Lewis 2 0 1-2 5, Troy Scott 5 0 3-6 13, Ben McDonald 0 0 0-0 0, Joseph Payton 1 2 4-4 12, Zach McGraw 0 0 0-0 0, Trey Young 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 18-40 11-16 50. 3-point goals: 3-15. Fouls: 16. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 24 (Scott 8, Lewis 6). Assists: 7 (Goheen 3). Steals: 7 (Goheen 4). Turnovers: 10.

BEAVER EASTERN (NA): Ethan Leist 5 2 5-7 21, Justin Fultz 3 0 0-0 6, Garrett Fitch 1 0 0-0 2, Brennan Bobst 0 0 0-0 0, Ben Hesson 0 0 0-0 0, Trace Creech 4 0 2-4 10, Josh Thacker 3 0 4-7 10. Totals: 18-38 11-18 49. 3-point goals: 2-13. Fouls: 17. Fouled out: Creech. Rebounds: 11 (Thacker 5). Assists: 5. Steals: 7 (Thacker 3). Blocked shots: 1 (Bobst). Turnovers: 10.