The Register-Herald, Beckley, West Virginia

High School Sports

January 6, 2008

Falcons run over St. Joe’s

By Dave Morrison

Heading to the tunnel at halftime with a 38-33 lead, Huntington St. Joe had a message for Mountain State Academy.

“They were talking,” MSU Academy coach Rob Fulford said. “We’re going up the tunnel losing to a team we should be beating and they’re saying we’re not that good. I think it woke our kids up.”

Like a noisy alarm clock at 6 a.m.

From the final trey of the first half to 3:55 mark of the fourth quarter, MSU outscored the Irish 36-0 to win easily, 80-55, at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center Saturday.

Mountain State Academy’s large, extended run covered more than 12 minutes.

“That’s happened to us more than once this year,” St. Joe’s coach Ty Holmes said. “And it’s always in the second half. We start three freshmen and two sophomores. It’s a learning process. If you learn from it, it’s good. If not, you’re going to do it again.”

MSU Academy (19-2) went to its 1-3-1 defense in the second half and it seemed to baffle the Irish.

“We aren’t that good playing man-to-man off the ball,” Fulford said. “So we switched it up. If you play it correctly, it can take teams out of their rhythm.”

“They went to that 1-3-1, hit a couple shots and we gave up,” Holmes said.

The run signaled game, set and match in the second half.

Before that, it was an entertaining matchup.

Behind the play of Khiry Sharp, St. Joe’s took the lead early in the second quarter and kept a bigger, more experienced MSU Academy team at bay.

Sharp had 12 points in the second quarter, including a three-point play that gave the Irish a 35-26 lead and a three-pointer to put them up 38-30.

But Kofi Mensa’s three-pointer started a run nobody was expecting.

Ironically, had MSU Academy scored only Mensa’s trey in the first two quarters, it still would have only trailed by two at the end of the run.

MSU outscored the Irish 47-17 in the second half.

Mensa led the Falcons with 17 points and eight assists. D.J. Georgievski and Victor Ojanniyi had 14 each.

St. Joe’s Sharp led all scorers with 28 and Kwanis Hayes had 11.

Huntington St. Joseph (2-5)

Aaron Williams 3 2-4 8, Kwanis Hayes 4 2-6 11, Khiry Sharp 10 5-6 28, Parker Smith 0 0-2 0, Lance west 1 3-4 5, Josh Chambers 1 1-2 3, Joey Burgett 0 0-0 0. Totals: 19 13-24 55.

Mountain State Academy (19-2)

Milos Jaclijevic 2 1-4 6, D.J. Georgievski 6 2-3 14, Victor Ojanniyi 5 2-2 14, Filip Melinovic 1 0-0 3, Kofi Mensa 7 1-1 17, Jabs Newby 1 0-0 2, Todd Cornett 3 0-0 8, Lazar Milinkovic 1 0-0 2, Jonathan Coleman 2 2-3 6, Josh Birchfield 4 0-0 8. Totals: 32 8-13 80.

SJ 14 24 0 17 — 55

MSA 16 17 23 24 — 80

Three-point goals: SJ: 4 (Hayes, Sharp 3); MSA: 8 (Jaclijevic, Ojanniyi 2, Melinovic, Mensa 2, Cornett 2); Fouled out: none.

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