Jim Walker
jim.walker@irontontribune.com

Sometimes the St. Joseph Flyers’ shooting is on the mark, and sometimes their shooting is a little off.
Tuesday night, it was on. Really on.
J.C. Damron scored 28 points on a 13-for-15 shooting performance and Jackson Rowe drained four 3-pointers as he scored 18 points to lead the Flyers past the Green Bobcats 71-40 in a Southern Ohio Conference game.
Jimmy Mahlmeister had 7 points and 6 rebounds but Barnes said his defense was the biggest factor.
“Levi Sampson can go off and get 30 points like he did the other night. He got 22 but five of those came at the end of the game when Jimmy wasn’t in. He did a nice job defensively,” said Flyers’ coach Chris Barnes.
“Matt Sheridan did a great job of running the team. We shared the ball really well. And Jackson not only scored 18, he held (Levi) Singleton to three points.”
Levi Sampson scored 22 points and Ethan Huffman had 13 points to lead the Bobcats (1-3, 0-2).
The Flyers (2-0, 2-0) took an 18-11 first quarter lead as Rowe buried a pair of 3-pointers and scored 8 points and Damron had 6 more. Huffman scored 6 points to keep the Bobcats close.
But the St. Joseph pressure and hot-shooting began to take its toll in the second quarter as the Flyers opened up a 37-19 halftime lead.
Rowe hit two more 3-pointers, Sheridan had a trifecta and scored 5 points while both Mahlmeister and Damron scored 4 points.
Sampson buried a triple and scored 7 of Green’s 8 points in the quarter.
It was more of the same in the third quarter scored 13 points including a 3-pointer just before the end of the stanza and the lead ballooned to 59-26.
“We played hard on defense. We forced 18 turnovers which was big. We had eight but five came at the end during mop up time,” said Barnes. “We shared the ball really well.”
Damron had 5 points and Max Weber 3 for the Flyers in the fourth quarter while Sampson and Huffman scored 5 each as the teams began to empty their benches.
St. Joseph host Portsmouth West at noon on Saturday.
Green 11 8 7 14 = 40
St. Joseph 18 19 22 12 = 71
GREEN (1-3, 0-2): Levi Sampson 7 1 5-7 22, Austin Ray 0 0 0-0 0, Ethan Huffman 5 0 3-4 13, Levi Blevins 1 0 0-0 2, Levi Waddell 0 0 0-0 0, Josh Hammonds 0 0 0-2 0, Braydon Chaffins 0 0 0-0 0, Levi Singleton 1 0 1-2 3, Wiley Sanders 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 1 9-15 40. Turnovers: 18. Fouls: 13. Fouled out: None.
ST. JOSEPH (2-0, 2-0): Jackson Rowe 3 4 0-0 18, Matthew Sheridan 2 1 0-0 7, J.C. Damron 12 1 1-2 28, Jared Johnson 2 0 0-0 4, Michael Mahlmeister 1 0 0-0 2, Jimmy Mahlmeister 2 0 3-4 7, Max Weber 1 0 1-2 3, Jacob Salisbury 1 0 0-0 2, Elijah Rowe 0 0 0- 0, Will Whaley 0 0 0-2 0, Dru Canter 0 0 0-0 0, Zach Johnson 0 0 0-0 0, Drew Brown 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 24 6 5-10 71. Fouls: 17. Turnovers: 8. Fouled out: None.