St. Paul back above .500 with road win

ORANGE TWP. — Slow down. For one half, everything felt rushed for the St. Paul basketball team. The result was a poor-shooting first half that saw the Flyers struggle to an ugly 16-10 halftime lead. But the second half completely flipped, as St. Paul shot an impressive 15 of 28 from the floor and outscored host Mapleton by 23 points in the second half of a 63-34 win in Firelands Conference play. The Flyers are back above the .500 mark at 10-9 overall for the first time since Jan. 6, when they were 6-5. St. Paul is 4-6 in the FC. Neither team shot the ball well in the first half, which saw the Flyers lead 16-10 at the break. St. Paul was just 6-of-26 shooting in the two quarters, while the Mounties countered with just 4-of-24 for a combined 10-of-50 from the two teams. "I thought we rushed a lot," St. Paul head coach Steve Minor said. "We put in some new sets, and we really liked them. You'd assume it would carry over, but that's not always the case from practice to game. "But when we shot it, we were just rushed in general," he added. "You could see some guys not setting their feet or their shoulders weren't squared. Everything was just a little out of sync." The Flyers wasted little time taking control in the second half. Nate Griffin opened the third with a 3-pointer, and after Mapleton snapped a 9:04 scoring drought, the Flyers went on an 8-0 scoring run in 69 seconds. That included another 3 by Griffin to make it 26-12 at the 5:08 mark. Leading 28-17, Landon Fries made two foul shots, and Griffin made his third 3 of the game. He then added two free throws after a basket by teammate Isaac Kalizewski, pushing the lead out to 37-17 with 56 seconds left in the quarter. After the Mounties (2-14, 0-10) cut the deficit to 37-21, the Flyers removed any doubt with a 10-0 scoring run. Connor Lindenberger started things, then Brady Fritz made a 3, and Kalizewski again scored down low to make it a 47-21 advantage with 6:31 remaining in the game. Consecutive scores by Lindenberger put the Flyers up 51-25 with 4:43 left in the game. The Flyers led 5-2 after a 3 by Landon Fries at the 4:38 mark of the first quarter but did not score again until Griffin just beat the quarter buzzer on another 3 for an 8-7 lead. Mapleton's Owen Sheppard converted a three-point play to open the second quarter to give the Mounties a 10-8 lead. However, the hosts did not score again over the final 7:44 of the half. Meanwhile, the Flyers still struggled to shoot but were able to get some separation with an 8-0 run. Casey Fries gave St. Paul the lead on a 3, then Fritz split a pair of free throws and went coast-to-coast after a steal for a layup and a 14-10 lead with 3:10 left in the quarter. The final basket of the half came when Kalizewski rebounded a missed shot for a putback with 2:33 left in the half to make it 16-10. "Part of that was their defensive pressure, but we were also chasing," Minor said. "I thought we had open looks; we just rushed them. They made it ugly … 16-10 at halftime is ugly. But thank goodness we were on the right side of ugly." Griffin finished with 19 points for St. Paul. Fritz had 10 points and eight rebounds, while Landon Fries scored 13 points. Kalizewski added eight points and 10 rebounds, and Lindenberger had eight points and eight rebounds. "It's hard to get up for a game like this," Minor said of the weeknight game and the longest trip in the conference for St. Paul. "It didn't impact the conference race; we had won the first time, so we weren't looking to get even … so what did we want? "We wanted to keep getting better, but to slow down, take a deep breath, and play under control. Our shots started to fall, and we got some easy looks off dribble penetration, too." The Flyers will host Western Reserve (9-7, 7-4) on Saturday. The Roughriders took a critical loss Thursday against Monroeville and are two games behind league-leading Plymouth with three games remaining. "Their backs are still against the wall, and a Chris Sheldon team is going to play to the end," Minor said. "I remember last year they came in out of the race and came right at us and made us work. The bottom line is it's a Western-St. Paul game, and both teams will be up for it." ST. PAUL (10-9, 5-6) Nate Griffin 7-2—19; Casey Fries 1-0—3; Connor Lindenberger 4-0—8; Brock Houck 1-0—2; Isaac Kalizewski 4-0—8; Brady Fritz 2-5—10; Landon Fries 4-2—13. TOTALS 23-9—63. MAPLETON (2-14, 0-10) Cole Bates 1-0—2; Dalton Beattie 3-0—6; Owen Sheppard 2-1—5; Cole Dennison 2-0—4; Jack Sheppard 6-0—15; Jack Zehner 1-0—2. TOTALS 15-1—34. St. Paul 8 8 21 26 — 63 Mapleon 7 3 9 15 — 34 3-point FGs: (SP) L. Fries 3, Griffin 3, C. Fries, Fritz; (M) J. Sheppard 3.