Coach Kevin Hacker likes defense and he likes to win. Tuesday night he got both for the first time.

The St. Joseph Flyers turned in a strong defensive effort as they whipped the Portsmouth Notre Dame Titans 84-42 to give Hacker his first career victory.

"They played hard and stepped it up on the defensive side. That's what I like," Hacker said as his team came up with 14 steals.

"Defensively, we stepped things up and began anticipating things. The defensive end and rebounding is what won the game for us."

The Flyers dominated the boards with 40 rebounds including 11 by Corey Lewis and seven by Alex Swarts.

"Corey Lewis had a big game for us. He took care of the ball. He only had three turnovers, and that was a key," Hacker said.

"We played excellent. We rebounded really well. We had a lot of second chance points, and we had some kids come through who haven't been shooting well. We had four sophomores in double figures."

Lewis led the St. Joseph sophomores with 25 points, five assists and six steals. Michael Basedow scored 13 points while Ryan Waginger and Ryan Staton had 10 points each.

Basedow hit a pair of 3-pointers as he scored 8 points to put St. Joseph up 16-12 at the end of the first quarter.

Lewis had 7 points in the second quarter and the defense held the Titans to 8 points to build a 37-20 halftime cushion.

Lewis scored 16 more points in the second half as the Flyers continued to pull away.

Notre Dame128814-42

St. Joseph16212819-84

PORTSMOUTH NOTRE DAME (0-3):

Mader 2 0 0-1 4, Tenalio 1 1 0-0 5, Wallace 3 1 2-2 11, Saltsman 4 0 0-0 8, Sand 2 0 1-2 5, Schoettle 2 0 0-1 4, Bowman 0 1 0-0 3, Clayton 1 0 0-2 2. Totals: 15

3

3-8

42. Fouls: 18. Fouled out: None.

IRONTON ST. JOSEPH (1-2):

Kurt Jordan 0 0 1-2 1, Michael Basedow 2 3 0-0 13, Ryan Schwab 3 1 0-0 9, Corey Lewis 12 0 1-25, Clay Crum 0 1 1-2 4, Jeremy Addis 2 0 1-2 5, Ryan Waginger 4 0 2-5 10, Alex Swarts 3 0 1-2 7, Ryan Staton 5 0 0-2 10, Jerrod Laber 0 0 0-0 0, Josh Lewis 0 0 0-0 0, Alex Brown 0 0 0-0 0. Totals: 31

5

7-16

84. Fouls: 12. Fouled out: None. Rebounds: 27-13=40 (Lewis 11, Swarts 7). Assists: 8 (Lewis 5). Turnovers: 14. Steals: 21 (Lewis 6, Addis 3, Crum 2, Staten 2, Waginger 2).