By JIM WALKER

Tribune Sports Editor

The St. Joseph Flyers were just like the Energizer bunny. They just kept going and going and going.

Refusing to lose, the Flyers went three overtimes before outlasting the Portsmouth Notre Dame Titans 65-58 Wednesday.

“We felt good going into the third overtime. We had good energy,” said Flyers’ coach Jeremy Williams.

“We’re confident now in close games. We feel we can’t lose. We were in the huddle and T.J. (Young) said ‘we’re fine.’ We hung together and everyone played their role.”

St. Joseph (8-6) was led by Tanner Riley who had 19 points and 13 rebounds and Payton Blair who finished with 18 points, five assists and six steals.

Tyler Noel had 23 points and 15 rebounds before fouling out in the third overtime to pace the Titans (5-9). J.P. Kayser scored 10 points while Jacob Milani pulled down 11 rebounds.

“Notre Dame is always a close game when we play them. They always play hard,” said Williams.

Both teams struggled with their shooting. The Flyers were 19 of 58 from the field for 32.7 percent and 11 of 32 from the 3-point line. The Titans were 24 of 71 for 33.8 percent and a mere 3 of 20 from behind the arc.

Besides their cold shooting from the field, the Flyers were just 16 of 32 at the line, but made enough in the third overtime to get the win. They were only 5 of 11 from the stripe in the final extra period but the defense held the Titans scoreless.

“We couldn’t get the lead and we didn’t help ourselves with our foul shooting,” said Williams.

The Flyers did hold a 12-6 lead at the end of the first quarter when Young drained a 3-pointer from the corner with four seconds on the clock.

But Notre Dame went on a 19-0 run to begin the second quarter and led 25-12 after a 3-pointer by Kevin Lewis.

St. Joseph ended the scoring draught on a trey by Cody Blackburn with 2:05 left in the half. The Flyers got within 27-21 on a layup by Riley and two foul shots by Blair, but Jeff July’s putback as time ran out had the Titans up 29-21 at the break.

The Flyers scored seven unanswered points at the end of the third quarter on layups by Riley and Eli Lewis and another trey by Blackburn to cut the deficit to 39-34. J.P. Kayser had a triple to push the Titans’ lead 42-34 at the end of the quarter.

Blair had a big steal and layup to start the fourth quarter, Riley scored three points, Justin Mahlmeister and Riley drained back-to-back trifectas and Riley made a foul shot as the Flyers led 46-42.

The Flyers missed four foul shots over the final 1:22 of the fourth quarter that could have clinched the win and opened the door for Milani’s follow up shot with 1:05 left that tied the game at 50.

St. Joseph held for the final shot but missed and the ball bounced around as time expired.

Each team had three points in the first overtime and five in the second extra period and it was 58-all.

Mahlmeister had a putback at the 3:20 mark to give the Flyers the lead for good. While the Flyers were making some foul shots, the Titans missed all eight field goal attempts in the third overtime.

Notre Dame 6 23 13 8 3 5 0 = 58

St. Joseph 12 9 13 16 3 5 7 = 65

PORTSMOUTH NOTRE DAME (5-9): Kevin Lewis 0 1 0-0 3, Tyler Noel 9 0 5-7 23, Jacob Milani 4 0 0-1 8, Jeff July 1 0 0-0 2, Brad Pierron 3 0 0-0 6, J.P. Kayser 1 2 2-3 10, Michael Mader 20 0-2 4.Totals: 24-71 7-12 58. Fouls: 23. Fouled out: Pierron, Noel. 3-point goals: 3-20. Rebounds: 23 offense, 28 defense = 51 (Noel 15, Milani 11, July 7). Team/deadball rebounds: 5. Assists: 7 (Milani 2, Noel 2). Steals: 3 (Noel 2). Turnovers: 17.

SAINT JOSEPH (8-6): Payton Blair 2 2 8-14 18, Eli Lewis 1 0 0-0 2, Justin Mahlmeister 2 2 0-2 10, Tanner Riley 3 2 7-12 19, T.J. Young 0 2 1-3 7, Cody Blackburn 0 3 0-1 9, Zack Dalton 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 19-58 16-32 65. Fouls: 16. Fouled out: None. 3-point goals: 11-32. Rebounds: 14 offense, 28 defense = 42 (Riley 13, Mahlmeister 9, Blackburn 7). Team/deadball rebounds: 4. Assists: 9 (Blair 5). Steals: 11 (Blair 6, Riley 2). Turnovers: 11.