Flyers rally behind Wills, Waginger in 2nd half to get win over Tigers

NEW BOSTON — Once in a game in Cleveland, Craig Ehlo held Larry Bird to 1-of-10 shooting in the first half.

The two teams left the court going into the same tunnel. Ehlo looked at Bird and said “that’s defense.” Bird didn’t flinch and said “there’s two halves.”

Bird hit his first 10 shots of the second half as the Celtics came back to win easily.

On Tuesday night, the St. Joseph Flyers proved to the New Boston Tigers there are two halves as they rallied from a 27-21 deficit to post a 53-39 Southern Ohio Conference-1 win.

New Boston took an 18-14 first quarter lead as Julian Brady scored 6 points and Wyatt McNeil hit a 3-pointer and scored 5 points.

Eli Whaley hit a trifecta and scored 5 points and Barrett Waginger also nailed a triple and a pair of free throws for St. Joseph.

The scoring pace slowed down in the second quarter for both teams as the Tigers outscored the Flyers 9-7 and the lead went to 27-21 at the half.

Tyler McQuilthy hit a trey and scored 5 pointers for New Boston in the quarter.

But then came the second half, in particular the third quarter as the Flyers outscored New Boston 20-5 and took a 41-32 lead.

The Flyers’ Carson Willis did a mini-impression of Bird as he took over in the third quarter and dominated with 11 points for St. Joseph while Waginger knocked down two more 3-pointers.

Waginger hit another trey and scored 5 points and Whaley hit from behind the arc in the fourth quarter as the Flyers outscored the Tigers 12-7 to secure the win.

Willis finished with 13 points and grabbed 10 rebounds for the Flyers (5-8, 3-2). Waginger led the Flyers with 16 points including four 3-pointers to go with 2 assists and 4 steals. Whaley had 12 points,  rebounds and 5 steals.

Brady scored 13 points and McQuilthy 12 pointers for New Boston (4-9, 1-4).

St. Joseph visits Sciotoville East on Friday in an SOC-1 game.

St. Joseph 14 7 20 12 = 53

New Boston 18 9 5 7 = 39

ST. JOSEPH (5-8, 3-2): Jack Whaley 1 0 0-0 2, Eli Whaley 3 2 0-0 12, Barrett Waginger 1 4 2-2 16, Beckham Waginger 2 0 1-2 5, Jon Sharp 0 0 0-0 0, Zane Dressel 1 0 3-4 5, Carson Willis 4 0 5-8 13. Totals: 18-61 11-16 53. 3-pt goals: 6-21. Rebounds: 26 (Willis 10, E. Whaley 5). Assists: 6 (Ba. Waginger 2, Willis 2). Steals: 16 (E, Whaley 5, Ba. Waginger 4). Turnovers: 9. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: Be. Waginger.

(NEW BOSTON (4-9, 1-4): Wyatt McNeil 1 1 0-0 5, Brayden Craft 0 0 0-0 0, Tyler McQuilthy 2 2 2-2 12, Cody Trapp 0 0 0-0 0, Julian Brady 6 0 1-2 13, C. J. Dickerson 0 0 1-2 1, Quinten Clark 0 0 0-0 0, Cam Voters 2 1 1-2 8, Ashton Nolan 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 11 4 5-8 39. Fouls: 10. Fouled out: None.