Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

 

Willie Mosconi and Ralph Greenleaf would have been proud.

Considered the two greatest billiards players, the two knew how to shoot their way out of a tough situation. So do the St. Joseph Female Flyers.

Down 9 points at the half, the Female Flyers rallied with a strong second half to beat the South Point Lady Pointers 64-56 on Thursday.

“It seems when we’re behind the 8-ball, our kids have responded since the Russell game. We’ve fallen behind and been able to come back and play good,” said Female Flyers’ coach Nick Miller.

“We did a better job defensively in the second half. But give South Point credit. They came out and shot the ball really well in the first half.”

South Point jumped out to a 9-2 lead and went up 17-8 at the end of the first quarter as Haley Rawlins scored 7 points and Madison Kearns 4. Amber Neal had 4 for St. Joseph.

Each team scored 14 points in the second quarter. Abbey Winkler got 10 points for the Lady Pointers while Hannah Miller got 8 and Lynsey Booker 4 for the Female Flyers.

Miller scored 9 points and Booker 5 in the third quarter as St. Joseph rallied to tie the game at 42. Rawlins and Winkler got 4 each in the quarter for South Point.

In the fourth quarter, Miller had 8 points while Neal and Booker scored 6 points each as St. Joseph outscored South Point 22-14.

St. Joseph was 6-of-7 from the foul line down the stretch. Winkler and Kearns combined for 9 points in the quarter.

Miller scored a game-high 27 points to lead St. Joseph (16-5). Neal finished with 17 points and Booker had 16.

Winkler led South Point (4-17) with 21 points and Rawlins scored 14.

Coach Miller got emotional when talking about his six seniors that included Katie Roach, Rachel Martin, Haley Bartram, Bri Bridges, Neal and his own daughter, Hannah.

“Those six seniors have had a great career to this point. They’ve won 62 ball games, and for our little school I think that’s a great accomplishment,” said coach Miller.

“These girls have been together for a long time and a lot of them have grown up in my house. I’m very proud of them.”

St. Joseph plays at Racine Southern on Saturday while South Point faces Coal Grove at 9 p.m. Wednesday in the Div. III sectional tournament at Rock Hill.

South Point 17 14 11 14 = 56

St. Joseph 8 14 20 22 = 64

SOUTH POINT (4-17): Haley Rawlins 4 1 3-3 14, Brooklyn Badgett 2 1 0-0 7, Leah Lawson 1 0 0-0 2, Madison Kearns 3 0 3-5 9, Olivia Abner 1 0 1-2 3, Abbey Winkler 6 3 0-0 21. Totals: 17 5 7-10 56. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: Kearns.

ST. JOSEPH (16-5): Katie Roach 0 0 0-0 0, Amber Neal 6 1 2-3 17, Rachel Martin 0 0 0-0 0, Hannah Miller 8 3 2-2 27, Haley Bartram 1 0 0-0 2, Bri Bridges 1 0 0-0 2, Lynsey Booker 4 0 8-10 16. Totals: 20 4 12-15 64. Fouls: 9. Fouled out: None.