St. Paul cashes in on NL turnovers
Jan. 14—NORWALK — The early math didn't add up.
But the longer things went, the numbers added up in a big way for the St. Paul boys basketball team.
Hosting New London in a Firelands Conference game, the Flyers found themselves down 10-7 midway through the first quarter — an eight-minute period that saw the Wildcats turn the ball over 10 times.
But eventually, the Flyers were able to cash in on 19 New London turnovers in a 52-30 win inside Harvey Keller Gymnasium in Norwalk.
With the win, the Flyers improved to 7-4 overall and 5-2 in the FC, which surpassed last season's win total in a 6-17 season. New London fell to 2-11 (0-8 FC).
After Conner Byrd put New London up 10-7 at the 3:51 mark of the first quarter, the Flyers closed the quarter on a 10-0 scoring run for a 17-10 lead.
Brock Tice, Ian Deeter and Korey Frazee combined to score the 10 points for the Flyers, which included four baskets off steals that were easy layups.
Gavin Carruthers made one of his two 3-pointers to bring the Wildcats within 17-13 to open the second quarter, but it was all St. Paul from there.
The Flyers closed the quarter on a 14-3 scoring run to open up a 31-16 halftime lead. Nolan McCall scored an easy inside basket, then Michael Kirk followed with a 3-pointer at the 5:14 mark.
Ben Burger, McCall and Frazee each then scored in transition over a 2:30 span to put the Flyers in control at the break.
"We had a lot of runout baskets early," St. Paul head coach Steve Minor said. "We've been tinkering with different defenses. We tried one and we didn't match up in transition really well. So we went to our next option, and I think that was able to give us the swing to push us up seven, then we kind of settled in with our man to man after that."
The Flyers piled on in the third quarter. Led by Tice, St. Paul held a 17-6 scoring margin in the quarter to lead 48-22 entering the final eight minutes.
Tice scored 10 of his team's points in the quarter on his way to a game-high 18 points while also grabbing five rebounds. Deeter, Frazee and McCall had the other seven points.
St. Paul was coming off a 76-46 loss at Monroeville eight days prior on Jan. 6.
"When it was a close game, they were scoring inside," Minor said. "Byrd had seven in the first quarter and then didn't score again until the fourth. That was key. It was good getting another win no matter who it was against or when."
New London head coach Randy Endsley said his team was trying to be too perfect in the first quarter.
"We were trying to make the perfect pass instead of the easy pass," he said. "We have a lot of young guys who come in and out with three or four freshmen, and we were down one kid and lost another tonight. But that's part of it.
"I was very happy with the 52 points allowed, but we gave up 23 points on those turnovers, which was almost half their points," Endsley added. "So I think we have some positives to look at tonight, and that's a big thing we try and do with the kids is stay positive."
Byrd finished with 15 points and seven rebounds for the Wildcats, who host Mapleton on Friday. Carruthers added eight points.
For St. Paul, Frazee scored nine points and McCall added eight points and five rebounds.
The Flyers have a short turnaround with a rescheduled FC game on Tuesday at South Central (7-6, 4-4), which has won four straight after a 3-6 start.
"We're supposed to be better this year, and I think we'll find out a lot on Tuesday," Minor said. "It's another tough place to play with the small gym and fans on the stage.
"We hope our guys will be up to the task of playing a good team in that environment," he added. "They are doing a lot of good things recently and have the most dynamic scorer in the league in Isaac (Blair). We know Coach (Brett) Seidel will find what works and use it to their advantage."
NEW LONDON (2-11, 0-8)
Gavin Carruthers 3-0—8; Garrett Carruthers 1-0—2; Brody Sword 1-0—3; Conner Byrd 6-2—15; Gage Carroll 1-0—2. TOTALS 12-2—30.
ST. PAUL (7-4, 5-2)
Michael Kirk 2-0—5; Ben Burger 3-0—6; Travis Bocock 2-0—4; Korey Frazee 3-2—9; Brock Tice 8-2—18; Nolan McCall 3-2—8; Brock Houck 0-1—1. TOTALS 21-8—52.
N. London 10 6 6 8 — 30
St. Paul 17 14 17 4 — 52
3-point FGs: (NL) G. Carruthers 2, Sword, Byrd; (SP) Kirk, Frazee.
JV: St. Paul 41-7
