Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

 

Taking a cue from Hollywood, the St. Joseph Flyers underwent a facelift on Wednesday.

Zack Kelly and Tyler Ward both became eligible and gave the Flyers a boost not only on the court but emotionally as they pulled away in the second half to a 58-40 win over the New Boston Tigers in their homecoming game.

“It was a good win. We got (Kelly and Ward) and that helped. They’ve had to be the second team because they couldn’t work with the first group,” said Flyers’ coach Jeremy Williams.

“It’s good to have them. We just need to practice and get ready for the stretch drive.”

Kelly led a balanced offense with 11 points that included three 3-pointers. Troy Scott had 10 points, four assists and two blocked shots for the Flyers (4-8).

Zac McGraw and Wulf Goheen had seven rebounds each and Goheen also had three assists. Trey Young and Ward had four rebounds each.

Tyler Shonkwiler had 12 points and seven rebounds for New Boston (0-11).

Young’s 3-point play start the game but New Boston came back to take leads of 6-5 and 9-7, the latter with 2:23 left in the first quarter on a layup by Kade Conley.

But Young’s layup tied the game and Kelly’s first field goal attempt of the season was successful as he buried a 3-pointer that gave the Flyers the lead for good at 12-9 with 52 seconds on the clock.

Scott had back-to-back layups to end the quarter and St. Joseph led 16-9.

The Flyers led 22-20 after a layup by Shonkwiler with 1:28 to go in the half, but McGraw made a layup and Kelly knocked down a trifecta for a 27-20 lead at the break.

“Kelly can shoot the ball and he’s not afraid to shoot,” said coach Williams.

The Flyers had 15 turnovers with 10 coming in the first half. Once the turnovers stopped, the offense took off.

“There are two things we have to do to win. We have to take care of the ball and rebound. We didn’t take care of the ball very well tonight, but we did rebound,” said coach Williams.

Scott hit a 10-footer and Goheen and Kyle Williams each drained 3-pointers to begin the second half and the Flyers opened up a 35-20 lead.

Shonkwiler scored at the 3:50 mark to end the run, but a layup by Young put the lead back at 15.

After Ethan Porter made a layup for the Tigers, the Flyers went on a 10-0 run to end the quarter and the lead was 47-24.

New Boston was just 2 of 11 from the field in the third quarter and had eight turnovers.

“We were in the game and then we scored four points in the third quarter. We missed too many easy shots in the paint,” said New Boston coach Scott Jenkins. “But we played hard. We didn’t quit.”

A 3-point play by Ben McDonald gave the Flyers a 50-26 lead and a trey by Kelly and a laypu by Scott extended the lead to 53-32 with 3:17 to play.

The Flyers play at Rock Hill on Jan. 23.

New Boston 9 11 4 16 = 40

St. Joseph 16 11 20 11 = 58

NEW BOSTON (0-11): Ray Gomez 1 00-0 2, Parker Steele 2 1 0-0 7, Tyler Shonkwiler 7 0 0-0 14, Kade Conley 1 0 0-0 2, Jared Meade 2 0 0-0 4, Drake Truitt 2 0 2-5 6, Ethan Porter 1 0 0-0 2, Kyle McQuithy 0 1 0-0 3, Cody Poole 0 0 0-0 0, Marcus McGlone 0 0 0-0 0, Edward McGahan 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 18-52 2-5 40. 3-point goals: 2-5. Rebounds: 10-O, 23-D = 33 (Porter 8, Shonkwiler 7). Team/deadball rebounds: 2. Assists: 3. Steals: 11 (Conley 4, Steele 3). Blocked shots: 4 (Porter 3, Shonkwiler 1). Turnovers: 21. Fouls: 10. Fouled out: None.

ST. JOSEPH (4-8): Wulf Goheen 2 1 0-2 7, Kyle Williams 2 1 0-0 7, Troy Scott 4 0 2-3 10, Zac McGraw 3 0 0-1 6, Trey Young 3 0 1-1 7, Zack Kelly 0 3 2-2 11, Tyler Warad 0 0 0-0 0, Tre Neal 0 1 0-0 3, Ben McDonald 2 0 1-1 5, Clay Willis 0 0 0-0 0, Judge Williams 0 0 0-0 0, Brad Rist 0 0 0-0 0, Joey Bush 0 0 0-0 0, Seth Kelle7 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 21-56 6-9 58. 3-point goals: 6-16. Rebounds: 11-O, 23-D = 34 (McGraw 7, Goheen 7, Young 4, Ward 4). Team/deadball rebounds: 2. Assists: 10 (Scott 4, Goheen 3). Steals: 11 (K. Williams 3, McGraw 3, Z. Kelly 2). Blocked shots: 3 (Scott 2, McGraw 1). Turnovers: 15. Fouls: 10. Fouled out: None.