Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

 

SOUTH POINT — When the heat was on, the South Point Pointers remained cool.

Despite full-court pressure by Huntington St. Joe, the Pointers beat the pressure and posted a 58-51 win on Saturday.

“We handled their pressure well,” said Pointers’ coach Travis Wise.

“We were able to break the press and make some layups. We took care of the ball better than we have and we played better defense.”

Brady Rickard had a career-high 18 points to go with 10 rebounds, Ryan Gibson had 14 points and 6 rebounds, Elijah Adams added 9 points and Stephon Wagoner added 6 points and rebounds each in the winning effort.

“Rickard and Gibson had big games for us, but (Elijah) Adams and (Stephon) Wagoner played well, too. It was a good team effort,” said Wise.

“We had about 16 turnovers, but that’s half of what we did in other games we’ve been pressured.”

Travis McNeal scored 16 points and Iain Clarke 11 to lead the Irish.

Gibson scored 6 points and Rickard 5 in the first quarter as South Point (2-5) took an 18-9 lead.

The Irish got within 29-23 at the half but each team scored 15 points in the third quarter and it was 44-38.

The Pointers had a chance to put the game away in the fourth quarter but converted just 4 of 14 free throw attempts.

However, Rickard had 6 points and Gibson 5 as the Pointers outscored the Irish 14-13.

South Point hosts Fairland on Tuesday in an Ohio Valley Conference game.

Hunt. St. Joe 9 14 15 13 = 51

South Point 18 11 15 14 = 58

HUNTINGTON ST. JOSEPH (NA): Iain Clarke 4 0 3-4 11, Travis McNeal 1 4 2-4 16, Deaundra Murphy 2 1 0-0 7, John Morrison 1 0 3-4 5, Jacob Streiter 4 0 1-3 9, Kyler Burgess 0 1 0-0 3. Totals: 12 6 9-15 51. Fouls: 18. Fouled out: Steiter.

SOUTH POINT (2-5): Ryan Gibson 5 0 4-9 14, Brady Rickard 7 0 4-11 18, Alex Whitt 0 1 1-2 4, Stephon Wagoner 3 0 0-0 6, Chris Woodard 1 0 0-0 2, Elijah Adams 4 0 1-2 9, Cody Runyon 1 1 0-0 5, Drew Adams 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 21 2 10-24 58. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: None.