‘Fearless’ Flyers slip past Hornets

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, January 12, 2000

Coal Grove- Kevin Sheridan had a right to be afraid.

Wednesday, January 12, 2000

Coal Grove- Kevin Sheridan had a right to be afraid. But Bub Waginger and Bill Dressel proved to be calming influences.

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Even though the St. Joe Flyers were playing against the winless Coal Grove Hornets, a team they beat the first game of the season, Sheridan was rightly concerned.

"I was afraid of this one," Sheridan said. "We didn’t practice well (Monday), the game was on the road, and Coal Grove is playing better."

Fortunately, Waginger had a season-high 17 points including a clutch three-point play late in the game and Dressel sank two free throws in the final seconds to ice a 61-57 win over the Hornets Tuesday night.

Dressel led the Flyers with 21 points. Waginger had seven steals, six assists, and five rebounds to go with his point total in a strong all-around performance. Matt Frazer added 12 points and five rebounds while Eric Waginger led the Flyers with eight rebounds.

Coal Grove was led by Ryan Young with 14 points. Joe Sark and Jason Adams scored 10 points each.

St. Joe jumped out to a 10-0 lead and pulled away to a 20-8 first quarter lead. But Coal Grove stormed back the second quarter and pulled to within 27-24 at the break.

"Give Coal Grove a lot of credit. They’re still playing hard, but we made it tough on ourselves," said Sheridan. "They turned it over five or six times right off the bat, but then we did the same thing the second quarter."

The Flyers extended their lead to 8 early in the third quarter before Coal Grove got back within 45-41 at the end of the quarter.

The Hornets tied the game at 49-49 with about three minutes to play, but St. Joe scored to go up 51-49 and then Bub Waginger converted 3-point play to put the Flyers ahead 54-49.

Coal Grove’s Dean Mader hit a clutch 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 59-57. With 10 seconds left, Dressel was fouled off an inbounds play and sank both shots to set the final score.

"Turnovers killed us, especially the first half," said Sheridan.

The Flyers, 5-4, shot well from the field as they hit 24-of-41 shots for 58.5 percent, but they were guilty of 20 turnovers.

St. Joe travels to Portsmouth East Saturday. Coal Grove hosts Green Wednesday in a makeup game, then travels to South Point Friday for an Ohio Valley Conference game.

ST. JOSEPH – 20 7 18 16 – 61: Bub Waginger 4 2 3-5 17, Eric Waginger 3 0 3-4 9, Andy Stack 1 0 0-2 2, Bill Dressel 8 1 2-2 21, Matt Frazer 5 0 2-6 12, Rusty Yaniko 0 0 0-0 0, Danny Stack 0 0 0-0 0, Chris Laber 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 24-41 (3) 10-19 61. Fouls: 15. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 11-18=29 (E. Waginger 8, A. Stack 7, B. Waginger 5, Frazer 5). Assists: 16 (B. Waginger 6, A. Stack 4, E. Waginger 3). Steals: 14 (B. Waginger 7, E. Waginger 3, Dressel 2, A. Stack 2). Turnovers: 20.

COAL GROVE – 8 16 17 16 – 57: Jason Winters 2 0 1-2 5, Beau Webb 1 1 0-0 5, Josh Collins 0 0 0-1 0, Ryan Young 7 0 0-0 14, Joe Sark 4 0 2-3 10, Brandon Hicks 2 0 0-0 4, Jason Adams 5 0 0-1 10, Dean Mader 2 1 2-4 9. Totals: 23 2 5-11 57. Fouls: 20. Fouled out: Sark.