WELLSTON — When you’re hot, you’re hot. When you’re not, you’re not.

The Eastern Eagles began the game on fire from the field while the St. Joseph Flyers couldn’t buy a basket.

Eastern was able to use its first half hot-shooting to build a big lead and beat the Flyers 52-31 Wednesday in the Division IV sectional tournament semifinals.

The Flyers connected on 12-of-44 shots for the game but just 4-of-22 in the first half including 1-of-9 from behind the arc.

The Eagles 12-of-30 in the first half including 5-of-9 from 3-point range.

St. Joseph was tied just once at 2-2 at the 5:57 mark of the first quarter, but Eastern went on a 7-0 run to lead 9-2 with 4:02 on the clock.

After the Flyers got within 9-5 40 seconds later, the Eagles scored nine unanswered points to end the quarter on top 18-5.

Eastern’s largest lead of the first half was 32-12 at the half and the largest lead of the game was 48-20 with 1:06 left in the third quarter.

St. Joseph (6-14) was led by senior Joseph “The Shoe” Unger with 6 points and 7 rebounds. Tanner Riley and Payton Blair added 5 points each.

Kelly Winebrenner scored 17 points and Jake Lynch 12 to lead Eastern, 19-1 and ranked sixth in the final Associated Press poll.

Eastern now faces Symmes Valley at 6:15 Tuesday in the sectional finals.

St. Joseph 5 7 8 11 = 31

Eastern 18 16 14 4 = 52

ST. JOSEPH (6-14): Payton Blair 1 1 0-0 5, Cody Blackburn 2 0 0-0 4, Spencer Schwab 2 0 0-0 4, Anthony Whaley 0 0 0-0 0, Levi Hopkins 0 0 0-0 0, Joseph Unger 2 0 2-3 6, Wain Artis 1 0 0-0 2, Tanner Riley 1 1 0-2 5, Justin Mahlmeister 0 0 0-0 0, T.J. Young 1 0 3-3 5, Grant Geswein 0 0 0-0 0, Zach Alexander 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12-44 5-7 31. 3-point goals: 2-20. Fouls: 15. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 5 offense, 15 defense = 20 (Unger 7). Assists: 4 (Blair, Riley, Young, Whaley 1 each). Steals: 1 (Unger). Turnovers: 10. Blocked shots: 2 (Riley, Alexander).

EASTERN MEIGS (19-1): Mike Johnson 1 0 1-2 3, Jake Lynch 2 2 2-2 12, Kelly Winebrenner 4 3 0-0 17, Brayden Pratt 1 0 0-1 2, Tyler Hendrix 0 1 1-2 4, Max Carnahan0 0 1-2 1, Jacob Parker 0 0 0-0 0, Kyle Connery 1 0 0-0 2, Devon Baum 2 0 2-3 6, Jonathan Barrett 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 19-51 8-14 52. 3-point goals: 6-15. Fouls: 8. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 9 offense, 19 defense = 28 (Pierce 9). Assists: 14 (Winebrenner 4, Pierce 4). Steals: 3 (Winebrenner 2). Turnovers: 9. Blocked shots: 3 (Winebrenner 3).