Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

 

The St. Joseph Female Flyers might have been short on players, but they weren’t short on effort.

But despite their best efforts, the Portsmouth Notre Dame Lady Titans were able to pull away late to a 50-40 win over the Female Flyers on Monday.

St. Joseph was playing without leading scorer and rebounder Hannah Miller for the fourth straight game and they were also missing key reserve Katie Roach who missed the game due to an injury.

“Our girls gave a great effort. We were short-handed, but the girls tried to step up and make the plays and they almost did it,” said Female Flyers’ coach Nick Miller.

“Notre Dame is a good team and (Brooke) Pierron is a good player. She put their team on her back and carried them.”

Lynsey Booker scored 15 points and Amber Neal had 10 points to lead the Female Flyers (10-4).

Pierron scored a game-high 24 points to lead the Lady Titans (11-3).

Booker scored 6 points in the first quarter as St. Joseph took a 10-8 lead.

The scoring picked up in the second quarter as Notre Dame outscored St. Joseph 19-16.

Neal scored 6 points and Bri Bridges 5 points for the Female Flyes, but Maggie Hoover got all 5 of her points and Pierron scored 8 points including a shot at the buzzer to put the Titans ahead 27-26 at the break.

The Female Flyers’ offense struggled in the second half as they scored only 14 points.

Pierron had 10 points alone in the third quarter as the Lady Titans pulled away to a 41-32 lead.

“We just couldn’t score in the second half. We were still in the game, but they made a 3-point play and we just couldn’t come back,” said coach Miller.

St. Joseph cut the deficit to 3 points with 2:30 to play, but Ragen Kayser’s 3-point play off an inbounds play extended the lead to six and the Lady Titans made 3 of 6 free throws down the stretch.

St. Joseph hosts Sciotoville East next Monday.

Notre Dame 8 19 14 9 = 50

St. Joseph 10 16 6 8 = 40

PORTSMOUTH NOTRE DAME (11-3): Molly Hoover 2 0 0-1 4, Maggie Hoover 1 1 0-0 5, Lauren Edwards 3 0 0-0 6, Brooke Pierron 7 0 10-14 24, Ragen Kayser 3 0 1-1 7, Lexi Smith 2 0 0-0 4. Totals: 18 1 11-16 50. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: None.

ST. JOSEPH (10-4): Amber Neal 5 0 0-0 10, Ashley Bartram 0 0 0-0 0, Lynsey Booker 5 1 2-5 15, Alyson Johnson 2 0 0-1 4, Rachel Martin 0 0 0-1 0, Haley Bartram 0 1 0-0 3, Bri Bridges 2 1 1-2 8. Totals: 14 3 3-9 40. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: None.