Jim Walker
jim.walker@irontontribune.com

For the St. Joseph Flyers, the first two quarters were half empty and the last two quarters were half full.
Trailing at the half, the Flyers outscored Symmes Valley by 36 points in the second half and beat the Vikings 71-44 in a Southern Ohio Conference win on Monday.
The Flyers (11-5, 8-4) were led by Jimmy Mahlmeister with 24 points and 8 rebounds as they turned in one of their better shooting performances in the second half.
“That’s the best Jimmy has ever played,” said Flyers’ coach Chris Barnes after his defensive specialist showed his offensive prowess.
J.C. Damron had a double-double again with 23 points and 10 rebounds putting him at 923 career points and 490 rebounds.
“If we had been able to play all our games this season, J.C. gets a thousand points easy. He still has a great chance to get 500 career rebounds,” said Barnes.
“But I have to say we played great team defense the entire second half. I think we outscored them 47-11 in the second half.”
Symmes Valley (7-9, 6-7) started well out of the game by taking a 16-6 lead. Grayson Walsh hit a 3-pointer and he joined Luke Leith to score 5 points each while Drew Scherer hit a 3-pointer and scored 4 points.
Mahlmeister had 4 of the Flyers’ 6 points.
The Vikings continued with their offensive surge as Josh Ferguson hit a 3-pointer and scored 7 points and Scherer had 6 more points to make it 33-30 at the break.
Mahlmeister scored 7 points, Damron had 5 points and Michael Mahlmeister came off the bench to get 4 points and as the Flyers narrowed the deficit.
Then came the second half.
Jimmy Mahlmeister heated up as he drained three trifectas and scored 9 points, Damron also scored 9 points including 5-of-6 from the foul line, Matt Sheridan had 4 points and Jackson Rowe buried a trey as the Flyers outscored the Vikings 25-6 to rocket to a 49-39 lead.
Caden Brammer scored 4 points and Scherer had a basket to account for the Vikings’ offense.
Things only got worse for the Vikings in the fourth quarter as they managed just 5 points.
The Flyers continued with their hot hand as Damron hit a 3-pointer of his own and scored 7 points, Jimmy Mahlmeister had 4 points and Rowe was 3-for-3 from the foul line and they outscored the Vikings 22-5.
Scherer scored 14 points to lead the Vikings with Brammer adding 8 points and Ferguson 7.
Symmes Valley entertains Beaver Eastern in the Division 4 sectional tournament on Wednesday. The Flyers are at home in the tournament at 7 p.m. Saturday against the winner of Wednesday’s game between Leesburg Fairfield and Corning Miller.
Sym. Valley 16 17 6 5 = 44
St. Joseph 6 24 25 22 = 71
SYMMES VALLEY (7-9, 6-7): Caden Brammer 4 0 0-0 8, Luke Leith 2 0 1-3 5, Josh Ferguson 2 1 0-0 7, Aleck Beckett 2 0 0-0 4, Drew Scherer 5 1 1-2 14, Nick Strow 0 0 0-0 0, Eli Patteson 0 0 0-0 0, Grayson Walsh 1 1 0-0 5, Tanner McComas 0 0 0-1 0. Totals: 163 3-8 44. Turnovers: 14. Fouls: 17. Fouled out: None.
ST. JOSEPH (11-5, 8-4): Jackson Rowe 0 1 3-3 6, Will Whaley 1 0 0-0 2, Matt Sheridan 2 0 2-2 6, J.C. Damron 7 1 6-9 23, Jared Johnson 0 0 0-0 0, Michael Mahlemeister 2 0 1-2 5, Jimmy Mahlmeister 6 3 3-3 24, Max Weber 1 0 0-0 2, Jacob Salisbury 1 0 0-0 2, Elijah Rowe 0 0 0-0 0, Zach Johnson 0 0 0-0 0, Drew Brown 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 20 5 16-19 71. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: None.