The offense took the spotlight, but the defense did the work.

The St. Joseph Female Flyers used a strong defense to trigger an 85-12 win over Harvest Christian Thursday.

“We changed up our defense and it worked really well,” said St. Joseph coach B.J. Hannon. “We played well and I was proud of our girls’ effort.

“But (Harvest Christian) is in the same boat as us. We don’t have a lot of players and neither do they and tha makes it hard to practice. And this was their first game.”

Michelle Staton scored a career-high 26 points to lead the Flyers offense. Katie Schwab had 16 points and Charleigh Haas 15.

Staton scored 8 points in the first quarter as St. Joseph took a 20-9 lead. Staton had 10 more points in the second quarter and the defense allowed just one point and it was 38-10 at the break.

Schwab scored 9 points in the third quarter while Katie Hacker and Sara Burcham had 6 points each in the fourth quarter for the Flyers.

St. Joseph plays at 11 a.m. Saturday at Portsmouth Notre Dame.

Harvest Christian9102=12

St. Joseph20182918=85

HARVEST CHRISTIAN (0-1): Elizabeth Esposel 2 0 0-0 4, Hannah Jacobs 0 0 0-0 0, Jessica Bumgardner 1 1 0-0 5, Nicole Polleck 1 0 1-2 3. Totals: 4 1 1-2 12. Fouls: 14. Fouled out: Bumgardner.

ST. JOSEPH (1-2): Danielle Blair 3 0 0-0 6, Charleigh Haas 7 0 1-2 15, Katie Schwab 6 0 4-6 16, Michelle Staton 13 0 0-0 26, Katie Hacker 2 0 3-4 7, Sara Basedow 2 0 1-3 5, Sara Burcham 4 0 0-0 8, Alison Stump 0 0 2-2 2. Totals: 37 0 11-xx 85. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: None.