St. Joseph Flyers coach Adam Simpson might be against cloning, but he might make an exception when it comes to the way his team plays.

After turning in a strong first half, the Flyers struggled in the second half as they lost 68-46 Tuesday to the Piketon Red Streaks.

St. Joseph (1-6) actually led at the half, then made just two of nine field goal attempts in the third quarter as Piketon stormed back to take the lead.

"We played well the first half. We had the tempo the way we wanted, contesting every shot, and our guards we're handling their pressure," Simpson said.

"You look at the score and think we got blown out, but we played a good first half against a good team. We got down in the third quarter and then we had to gamble and battle to come back in the fourth quarter."

Jeremy Addis scored five of his points and Shawn Hacker four in the first quarter as St. Joseph took a 15-13 lead.

Kyle Vulgamore scored four points as Piketon cut the deficit to 23-22 at the half. Hacker got five in the quarter for St. Joseph.

Vulgamore had seven and Kyle Miller six in the third quarter as Piketon outscored the Flyers 16-4 to rally for a 38-27 lead. Alex Swarts scored all four of the Flyers' points.

Eric Farmer and Vulgamore combined for 15 points to offset 11 by Hacker in the fourth quarter as the Red Streaks outscored the Flyers 30-19.

Hacker led all players with 22 points and 12 rebounds. Swarts finished with 10 points, six rebounds and three assists.

"Alex played pretty good for us and Shawn was just Shawn," Simpson said.

Vulgamore had 21 points, Farmer 17 and Miller 10 for Piketon, 8-1.

One bright spot for the fact the Flyers had just nine turnovers.

"We did cut down on the turnovers, but we made some bad decisions and took some bad shots. We have to learn when to attack the basket and when to slow up," Simpson said.

Piketon1391630-68

St. Joseph158419-46

PIKETON (8-1): Chris Vickers 1 1 0-0 5, Kyle Miller 4 0 2-4 10, Ben Thompson 2 0 0-0 4, Kyle Vulgamore 6 3 0-1 21, Eric Farmer 6 0 5-8 17, Nick Francis 2 0 1-2 5, Eli Porter 1 0 2-2 4. Totals: 22

(4)

10-17

68. Fouls: 16. Fouled out: None.

IRONTON ST. JOSEPH (1-6): Michael Basedow 1 0 0-1 2, Ryan Schwab 0 0 0-0 0, Cory Lewis 0 0 3-4 3, Jeremy Addis 3 1 0-0 9, Alex Swarts 5 0 0-0 10, Shawn Hacker 10 0 2-4 22, Ryan Staton 0 0 0-0 0, Chad Haas 0 0 0-0 0, Kurt Jordan 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 20-52

(1)

5-9

46. Fouls: 15. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 22 (Hacker 12, Swarts 6). Assists: 7 (Swarts 3). Steals: 7 (Lewis 5). Turnovers: 15.