This one started too fast for the St. Joseph Flyers but just right for the Coal Grove Hornets.

Coal Grove jumped out to a 21-10 first quarter lead and held off the Flyers 51-47 Tuesday.

“Our defense has been pretty good and then we gave up 21 points in the first quarter and that was the difference,” said Flyers coach Kevin Sheridan.

“We did a poor job in transition and we didn’t communicate on defense. We had breakdowns and let them get some open 3s.”

Reece Rymer hit a 3-pointer as he scored seven points, Wayne Sparks had five points and a 3-pointer, and Chris Dirling added a trey as the Hornets had a big first quarter.

Chad Harvey scored nine points in the second quarter as the Flyers cut the deficit to 30-23 at the break.

Harvey had 11 more points in the third quarter as St. Joseph got within 39-37. Austin Willis had five points including another 3-pointer for the Hornets.

Dane Haukedahl and Eric Edens scored four points each in the fourth quarter as the Hornets hung on for the win. David Crossan tried to rally the Flyers with five points.

A key in the game was the Flyers 6-for-17 foul shooting.

“We did something we usually don’t do. We usually shoot free throws well and tonight we were 6-for-17,” said Sheridan. “We showed a lot of character, and we had our chances late, we just couldn’t get over the hump.”

Rymer had 12 points to lead a balanced Coal Grove offense. Harvey had 22 points to lead all scorers.

Coal Grove219912=51

St. Joseph10131410=47

COAL GROVE (3-3): Eric Edens 1 0 4-7 6, Austin Willis 1 1 0-3 5, Chris Dirling 1 1 0-0 5, Reece Rymer 3 2 0-0 12, Wayne Sparks 1 1 2-2 7, Dane Haukedahl 4 0 0-0 8, Brandon Chinn 0 0 4-4 4, David Bridges 2 0 0-0 4, Cody Damron 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 13 5 10-16 51. Fouls: 16. Fouled out: Chinn.

ST. JOSEPH (2-5): Chad Harvey 10 1 1-1 24, Payton Blair 0 0 0-0 0, David Crossan 3 0 3-9 9, Joey Basedow 2 0 1-1 5, Pat Gagai 0 0 0-0 0, Alex Brown 0 0 1-2 1, Caleb Blackburn 4 0 0-4 8. Totals: 20-37 6-17 47. 3-point goals: 1-7. Fouls: 15. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 23 (Crossan 8, Harvey 5). Assists: 7 (Blair 2, Basedow 2, Brown 2). Steals: 7 (Crossan 3). Turnovers: 22.-7 0-0 6, Evan Stapleton 12-14 3-5 29, Dean Schneider 0-2 0-0 0, Drew Bear 4-4 0-0 8, Ash Price 3-10 2-2 8, Ethan McCarty 4-6 2-4 11. Totals: 27-45 7-11 64. 3-point goals: 3-7 (Stapleton 2-2, McCarty 1-1). Fouls: 14. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 7-19=26 (Stapleton 7, Staggs 6). Assists: 14 (Staggs 5, Price 4). Steals: 6 (Staggs 3). Turnovers: 20.