Jim Walker
jim.walker@irontontribune.com

It wasn’t a mistake-free game, but St. Joseph Flyers’ coach Chris Barnes will take it.
“We only had four turnovers for the game. I’ll take that any night,” said Barnes after the Flyers beat the Portsmouth Clay Panthers 58-36 on Friday in a Southern Ohio Conference game.
Besides the absence of turnovers, the Flyers’ defense held Clay scoreless in the first quarter as they coasted to the win.
J.C. Damron led the Flyers with 17 points and five rebounds while Jackson Rowe hit three 3-pointers and scored 15 points.
Shaden Malone finished with 10 points for Clay (4-15, 4-7).
“Jimmy Mahlmeister had a great defensive effort on their leading scorer Malone. He held him to 10 points,” said Barnes. “Jackson Rowe was feeling better tonight and you could tell. He had another big game.”
Rowe and Mahlmeister each hit 3-pointers and scored 5 points as the Flyers took a 17-0 first quarter lead.
Barnes tried resting some players in the second and fourth quarters since the Flyers (8-4, 5-3) had a game on Thursday and play Western at home on Saturday afternoon.
Damron scored 6 points in the second quarter and Jared Johnson added a basket and it was 25-16 at the half. Malone had 7 of his points in the second quarter.
Rowe came out firing in the third quarter as he hit two more trifectas and scored 10 points, Damron scored 7 and Michael Mahlmeister came off the bench to get 4 and the Flyers lead ballooned to 46-24.
Max Weber scored 4 points to lead the St. Joseph in the fourth quarter as each team scored 12 points.
Ports, Clay 0 16 8 12 = 36
St. Joseph 17 8 21 12 = 58
PORTSMOUTH CLAY (4-15, 4-7): Clay Cottle 2 2 0-0 10, Shaden Malone 4 0 2-7 10, Landon TGhomas 0 0 0-0 0, Gavin Cayton 1 0 0-0 2, Carson Porginski 0 1 0-0 3, Jacko Holbrook 0 0 1-2 1, Collen Payne 0 0 0-0 0, Jaymes Jones 0 0 0-0 0, Evan Balestra 0 2 0-0 6, Jaden Jesse 0 0 4-4 4, Bobby Deal 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 7 5 7-13 36. Fouls: 9. Fouled out: None.
ST. JOSEPH (8-4, 5-3): Jackson Rowe 3 3 0-0 15, Matt Sheridan 2 0 1-1 5, J.C. Damron 7 0 3-4 17, Jared Johnson 3 0 0-0 6, Michael Mahlmeister 2 0 0-0 4, Jimmy Mahlmeister 2 1 0-0 7, Max Weber 2 0 0-0 4, Jacob Salibury 0 0 0-0 0, Elijah Rowe 0 0 0-0 0, Drew Brown 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 21 4 4-5 58. Fouls: 13. Fouled out: None.