Jim Walker
jim.walker@irontontribune.com

To the St. Joseph Flyers, Thursday’s game against the Sciotoville East Tartans felt like their ship struck a sandbar.
As far as Flyer’s coach Rex Cooksey is concerned, it was merely dropping anchor for a few moments.
The Flyers struggled from the field for the first time this season in losing 50-34 to the Tartans at The Ironton Classic. Despite the loss, Cooksey said his team must stay the course.
“We missed a lot of layups. We had our feet set on a few 3s. You’ve got to keep believing in yourself and keep your confidence. That’s probably the first time this year we haven’t shot well,” said Cooksey.
“There’s nights (the ball) won’t go in and the next night they might all go in. We’ve got to keep believing in our defense and believing in our shots. We’ll right the ship.”
Chase Walters had 14 points and 8 rebounds for the Flyers (2-3). Isaac Whaley had 6 rebounds and 3 assists while Zac McGraw had 5 rebounds.
Drew Lowe scored 11 points, Kanyan Bruton had 9 points while Kyle Flannery and Will Shope scored 8 each.
Cooksey praised his team’s defensive effort.
“East is a very talented offensive basketball team,” said Cooksey. “If you had told me (Akia) Brown was going to have six points, (Blaine) Scott was going to have six points and they were going to have 50 total points, I’d have told you we’d have been right there.”
Walters made a layup at the 1:50 mark of the first quarter and the Flyers led 6-5. But it was their last lead as Flannery hit a 3-pointer to ignite a 14-0 run and East lead 19-6 with 6:17 left in the second quarter.
Isaac Whaley — who had been suffering from the flu — made two foul shots to end the run but East went up 27-8 after a  triple by Shope.
Walters’ layup and McGraw’s 10-footer just before the half and it was 27-12.

Trailing 41-22 after three quarters, Whaley made a foul shot, Walters hit two more and Zach Roach drilled a trifecta that got the Flyers within 41-28 with 5:48 to play.
But that was as close as they would get the rest of the game.
“We had 20 turnovers and I’ll give them credit for six forced turnovers. You take 14 turnovers on yourself that we caused or fatigue caused, and you can see how we could have been in the game,” said Cooksey.
St. Joseph plays at Portsmouth Notre Dame on Friday.
Sciotoville    10    17    14    9    =    50
St. Joseph    6    6    10    12    =    34
SCIOTOVILLE EAST (2-2): Drew Lowe 3 1 2-2 11, Kyle Flannery 1 2 0-0 8, Brady Douthat 0 0 0-0 0, Akia Brown 3 0 0-0 6, Blaine Scott 2 0 2-2 6, Deshaun Martin 0 0 0-0 0, Will Shope 1 2 0-0 8, Kanyan Bruton 4 0 1-1 9, Brandon Craft 0 0 0-2 0, J.D. Hatcher 1 0 0-0 2, Michael Bivens 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 20-53 5-7 50. 3-point goals: 5-19. Rebounds: 12-O, 23-D = 35 (Scott 5, Brown 5). Team/deadball rebounds: 4. Assists: 4 (Brown 2). Steals: 9 (Flannery 2, Brown 2, Bruton 2). Turnovers: 17. Fouls: 18. Fouled out: None.
ST. JOSEPH (2-3): Isaac Whaley 0 0 3-4 3, Clay Willis 0 0 0-0 0, Zac McGraw 2 0 0-0 4, Tre Neal 1 1 0-0 5, Chase Walters 6 0 2-4 14, Peyton Adkins 1 0 0-0 2, Zach Roach 0 1 2-2 5, Bryson Canter 0 0 0-0 0, Andrew Lawson 0 0 0-0 0, Isaac Walker 0 0 1-2 1, Joey Bush 0 0 0-0 0, Chase Wilds 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 10-47 8-12 34. 3-point goals: 2-15. Rebounds: 9-O, 20-D = 29 (Walters 8, Whaley 6, McGraw 5). Team/deadball rebounds: 3. Assists: 8 (Whaley 3, Walters 2). Steals: 5 (Willis 2). Turnovers: 19. Fouls: 11. Fouled out: None.