Jim Walker
jim.walker@irontontribune.com

The shooting struggles of the St. Joseph Flyers continued again on Tuesday.
But not for the fourth quarter.
The Flyers led by just 6 points after three quarters when their offense began to click as they pulled away from the Portsmouth Clay Panthers for a 57-39 Southern Ohio Conference win.
“We still struggled for about three quarters, but I’ve never seen so many shots go in and out of the basket,” said Flyers’ coach Chris Barnes.
“But we finally got hot and that got us going and we picked up our defense tremendously. We needed that for our confidence, especially playing at Symmes Valley on Friday.”
St. Joseph visits Symmes Valley on Friday in a league game.
J.C. Damron led three Flyers in double figures with 18 points. Ryan Payne had 14 points and Zach Roach scored 13. Roach and Payne combined for five 3-pointers.
Clay (4-8, 3-3) was led by Reece Whitley with 17 points.
Damron scored 6 points and Payne hit a 3-pointer as the Flyers took a 15-12 first quarter lead.
Damrom hit a 3-pointer and scored 7 points and Roach knocked down a trey and scored 5 points as the Flyers extended their lead to 29-23 at the break.
Matt Sheridan and Roach each hit a trifecta in the third quarter and Jimmy Mahlmeister added a basket and the Flyers were up 37-30.
Payne got the hot hand as he scored 9 points and he and Roach each hit 3-pointers as St. Joseph outscored Clay 20-9 in the fourth quarter.
Whitley scored all 9 of Clay’s points.
Ports. Clay 12 11 7 9 = 39
St. Joseph 15 14 8 20 = 57
PORTSMOUTH CLAY (4-8, 3-3): Clay Cottle 1 0 0-0 2, Shaden Malone 4 0 1-5 9, Evan Woods 0 0 0-0 0, Reece Whitely 8 0 1-1 17, Hayden Moore 0 0 0-0 0, Caden Cline 0 0 0-0 0, Levi Ratliff 0 0 0-0 0, Gage Moore 2 1 0-0 7, Jaden Jessee 2 0 0-0 4, Dakota Dodds 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 17 1 2-6 39. Fouls: 11. Fouled out: None.
ST. JOSEPH (9-2, 5-1): Jackson Rowe 0 0 0-0 0, Zach Roach 1 3 2-2 13, Matthetw Sheridan 0 1 0-0 3, Ryan Payne 4 2 0-0 14, J.C. Damron 6 1 3-3 18, Jared Johnson 1 0 0-0 2, Michael Mahlemeister 0 0 0-0 0, Jimmy Mahlmeister 2 1 0-0 7, Max Weber 0 0 0-0 0, Jacob Salisbury 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 8 5-5 57. Fouls: 9. Fouled out: None.