ALBANY – It was a rematch of last season.

Thursday, February 21, 2002

ALBANY – It was a rematch of last season. And it ended up a rerun.

Last season, the top-seeded Reedsville Eastern Eagles faced the St. Joe Flyers in the Division IV sectional semifinals and won easily. The two met again Wednesday in the sectional semifinals and Eastern came away with an 81-49 win.

Eastern (18-3) used a swarming defense of several players geared to shut down St. Joe’s leading scorer Bill Dressel. The plan worked as Dressel was held to nine points.

Chris Laber picked up most of the scoring slack for the Flyers as he had 18 points to go along with 13 rebounds. Kyle Johnson came off the bench to score nine points while Danny Danny Stack handed out three assists and Dressel came away with three steals.

The Flyers were plagued by 23 turnovers.

Chris Lyons scored 18 points to pace the Eagles. Nathan Grubb scored 16 and Brent Buckley 10.

Garrett Karr, Lyons, and Buckley had eight rebounds each.

Eastern never trailed and 12-4 run in the first quarter to begin the game with an 18-8 lead.

The Eagles had a 12-0 scoring burst the second quarter as the lead went to 40-19 at the half.

In the third quarter, Eastern outscored the Flyers 12-1 over one stretch and went on to build a 61-33 lead.

St. Joe finished the season 7-15.

St. Joseph 8 11 14 16 – 49

Eastern 18 22 21 20 – 81

IRONTON ST. JOSEPH (7-15): Chris Carte 0 0 0-0 0, Danny Stack 0 0 0-0 0, Kyle Johnson 3 1 0-0 9, Bill Dressel 3 1 0-0 9, Joe Laber 2 0 3-4 7, Chris Laber 6 0 6-7 18, Shawn Hacker 3 0 0-0 6, Matt Hornbeck 0 0 0-0 0, Chris Keeney 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 19-58 (2-14) 9-11 49. Fouls: 12. Rebounds: 39 (C. Laber 13). Assists: 7 (Stack 3). Steals: 4 (Dressel 3). Turnovers: 23.

REEDSVILLE EASTERN (18-3): Jason Kimes 3 0 0-0 6, Garrett Karr 4 2 5-6 18, Nathan Grubb 5 2 0-0 16, Alex Simpson 4 0 0-0 8, Brad Brannon 1 0 1-2 3, Andy Hysell 2 0 0-0 4, Brent Buckley 5 0 0-0 10, Travis Willford 1 0 0-0 2, Brandon Werry 0 0 0-0 0, Austin Cross 0 0 0-0 0, Cody Dill 3 0 0-4 6. Totals: 35-79 (5-15) 6-12 81. Fouls: 10. Rebounds: 48 (Karr 8, Buckley 8, Lyons 8). Assists: 13 (Brannon 4). Steals: 14 (Lyons 4). Turnovers: 10.