By JIM WALKER

Tribune Sports Editor

SCIOTOVILLE — It wasn’t the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.

Such was the case for the St. Joseph Flyers’ 6-foot-3 Justin Mahlmeister and 5-11 T.J. Young who had to defend against the Sciotoville East Tartans’ 6-4 Cory Haywood and 6-8 Patrick Bias.

Haywood and Bias had 37 points between them, but Mahlmeister and Young more than held their own as the Flyers beat the Tartans 80-71 Saturday night.

“East had a couple of big kids but our kids battled with them. Justin and T.J. did a nice job inside defensively,” said Flyers’ coach Jeremy Williams.

Mahlmeister scored 23 points and grabbed 12 rebounds while Young had six rebounds and seven points.

Tanner Riley had 18 points, six rebounds and four assists as the Flyers evened their record at 1-1. Eli Lewis added 11 points and six rebounds while Payton Blair got nine points and five assists.

“It was a good team effort. Everybody contributed and we played with a lot more fire (than last Friday’s game). We played fast, but we weren’t in as big of a hurry as the first game,” said Williams.

Haywood got 24 points and seven rebounds while Bias finished with 13 points and seven boards.

Cody Blackburn had five of his nine points in the first quarter and Mahlmeister also had five points as the Flyers took a 19-10 lead.

Mahlmeister scored nine points and Lewis five in the second quarter as the Flyers stretched the lead to 42-28.

East cut the deficit to 55-49 at the end of the third quarter, but Riley scored 11 points in the fourth quarter as he hit a 3-pointer and converted 2-of-3 from the line while Blair and Mahlmeister scored 6 points each as the Flyers outscored the Tartans 25-22.

The Flyers host Rock Hill Tuesday in the new Ironton High School gym and entertain Coal Grove Friday in the Sports Center.

St. Joseph 19 23 13 25 = 80

Sciotoville East 10 18 21 22 = 71

ST. JOSEPH (1-1): Payton Blair 0 2 3-5 9, Ike Palmer 0 1 0-0 3, Eli Lewis 1 2 3-5 11, Cody Blackburn 2 1 2-4 9, Tanner Riley 4 2 4-7 18, Justin Mahlmeister 4 3 6-7 23, T.J. Young 2 0 3-4 7. Totals: 24-60 21-32 80. Fouls: 19. Fouled out: Young. 3-point goals: 11-29. Rebounds: 33 (Mahlmeister 12, Riley 6, Young 6, Lewis 6). Assists: 15 (Blair 5, Riley 4). Steals: 7 (Young 2, Mahlmeister 2). Turnovers: 13.

SCIOTOVILLE EAST (0-1): Nathan King 0 0 0-0 0, Cody Belville 0 0 0-0 0, Justin Crager 4 0 3-5 11, Justin Phillips 1 2 2-2 10, J.C. Evans 0 2 5-7 11, T.J. Taylor 0 0 0-0 0, Devin Briggs 1 0 0-0 2, Cory Haywood 10 0 4-5 24, Patrick Bias 6 0 1-1 13. Totals: 26-63 15-20 71. Fouls: 25. Fouled out: Haywood, Crager. 3-point goals: 4-21. Rebounds: 24 (Haywood 7, Bias 7). Assists: 9 (King 3). Turnovers: 18. Steals: 1 (Evans).