Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

The good thing about basketball, if you don’t play well in the first half, you still have the second half to recover and make up for it.

The St. Joseph Lady Flyers made up for a sluggish first half with a strong effort on both ends of the court in the second half to beat the Portsmouth Clay Lady Panthers 41-26 in a Southern Ohio Conference game on Thursday.

“We didn’t play that well in the first half. We were rushing shots. We started pressing in the second half and that got us going,” said Lady Flyers’ coach Bart Burcham.

“Gracie (Damron) rebounded well and tried to score more. Bella (Whaley) played well in the second half and Laiken (Unger) has been solid on both ends of the floor every game.”

Whaley led all scorers with 22 points with 17 coming in the second half. She also had 9 rebounds.

Gracie Damron got 9 points and 10 rebounds while Laiken Unger added 6 points and 6 rebounds. Emily Litton also had 6 rebounds for St. Joseph (2-3, 2-2).

Cassidy Bazler had 4 points as Clay had a 6-5 first quarter lead.

But the Lady Flyers started to come to life on offense in the second quarter as Gracie Damron and Laiken Unger scored 4 points each and Bella Whaley drained a 3-pointer as they rallied to take a 16-9 lead at the break.

Whaley turned on the jet fuel in the third quarter as she knocked down a pair of 3-pointers and scored 12 of the Lady Flyers’ 16 points and the lead was now 34-19.

Kyleigh Oliver had 6 points in the third quarter for Clay (0-6, 0-4). Oliver finished with 11 points.

Whaley had 5 more points including a 3-pointer and Damron added a basket in the fourth quarter as each team scored 7 points.

Sarah Cassidy had a 3-pointer for Clay.

St. Joseph entertains Green on Monday.

Ports. Clay 6 3 10 7 = 26

St. Joseph 5 11 18 7 = 41

PORTSMOUTH CLAY (0-6, 0-4): Cassidy Bazler 3 0 0-0 6, Sarah Cassidy 0 1 3-6 6, Tori Lovert 0 0 0-0 0, Lynsey Loop 0 0 0-0 0, Amandea Everman 1 0 0-0 2, Rylan Jenkins 0 0 0-0 0, Kyleigh Oliver 3 0 5-6 11, Morgan McCoy 0 0 1-2 1. Totals: 7 1 9-14 26.

ST. JOSEPH (2-3, 2-2): Gracie Damron 4 0 1-2 9, Addie Philabaun 1 0 0-2 2, Laiken Unger 3 0 0-4 6, Emily Litton 1 0 0-0 2, Lydia Sheridan 0 0 0-0 0, Bella Whaley 4 4 2-2 22, Ava Weber 0 0 0-0 0, McKenzie Wilds 0 0 0-0 0, Mia Weber 0 0 0-2 0. Totals: 13 4 3-12 41. Rebounds: 28 (Damron 10, Whaley 9, Unger 6, Litton 6, Philabaun 2, Wilds 1. Fouls: 13. Fouled out: None.