St. Paul fends off Monroeville late

NORWALK — Almost good enough was finally no more. In four of its seven losses, the St. Paul boys basketball team trailed by five points or less in the fourth quarter against some quality opponents. But each time, the Flyers came up short from making those losses tight in the final minute. That ended Saturday against Firelands Conference foe Monroeville. The Flyers made a 41-38 lead over the final three minutes stand, as they also made two foul shots in the closing seconds to finish a 44-38 win over the Eagles inside Harvey Keller Gymnasium. St. Paul (7-7) improved to 2-5 in the FC, while Monroeville (6-4) fell two games off the pace of Plymouth (9-2, 7-0) at 5-2. "We just asked the guys, 'Aren't you tired of almost?' For so long, we were almost good enough," St. Paul coach Steve Minor said. "We were almost there after three quarters. We were almost good enough in the fourth quarter. "We wanted to finish one of these. We had good communication as far as the way they talked their way through some things on the floor. They were all picking each other up and just did a really nice job." After grabbing the lead at 15-14 with 3:41 left in the second quarter, St. Paul never trailed again. It didn't come easy, however. Connor Lindenberger and Nate Griffin opened the second half with baskets to push the lead out to 24-16. After the Eagles answered twice, Griffin made one of his four 3-pointers for a 27-20 lead with 4:03 left in the third. The junior scored again on a baseline jumper with 1:32 left, then Isaac Kalizewski scored on a rebound putback for a 31-22 lead with 59.6 seconds to go in the third. Monroeville got it to 31-25 when Colton Koch hit a deep 3 from the right wing at the quarter buzzer. The Eagles pulled within 34-31 with 5:56 remaining on baskets by Alec Schafer and Maverick Myers, only for Griffin to bank in his fourth and final 3 for a 37-31 lead just 13 seconds later. Cole Perry had back-to-back baskets in the paint around a layup by St. Paul's Brady Fritz to make it 39-36 with 4:02 left in the game. Lindenberger and Perry then traded scores in the paint to make it 41-38 with 3:01 remaining. From there, it was a battle of attrition. After a Monroeville turnover, St. Paul got the ball with just over 90 seconds left. Each team then traded turnovers on consecutive possessions, still leaving the score 41-38 with Monroeville holding possession. But an offensive foul with 22.9 seconds left again gave the ball back to the Flyers, who got it inbounded to Landon Fries, who was fouled with 19.8 seconds to go. He split the pair, then the Eagles again turned it over with 10.6 seconds left. Griffin was fouled and made both free throws for the final margin. "At the end of the game, I just didn't think we executed with some open looks and chances to tie it," Monroeville coach Bob Fries said. "We had the ball four times and I don't think we got a shot off. So we didn't execute well enough to win." Minor admitted his team didn't finish on offense, but did a nice job of forcing the Eagles to use time off the clock late. "We were changing up defenses when they brought it up, then changing it back to what had gotten us there," he said. "We talked through switching from zone to man, and fortunately we had enough timeouts where we were able to at least talk about what we wanted to do. "But the kids are smart. If they were going to trap or run a certain play, the guys were ready. They paid attention, executed, and did what they were supposed to do in those moments. It was nice to do those things late and finish this one off." The Eagles led 8-6 after one and 14-11 with 4:11 left in the third quarter before the Flyers went on their 20-8 scoring run to take the lead for good. "I thought we did a great job of bringing the intensity and getting after it, and we played hard," Bob Fries said. "I just don't know why it took us being down nine on the road against our rival to start playing hard. That was something we talked about after the game. "I thought the first three quarters we were very sluggish and not really getting after it. I don't know what the reason was, but we didn't bring it in those three quarters." Griffin finished with a game-high 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting for St. Paul. Landon Fries scored eight points, while Lindenberger had six points and five rebounds, and Kalizewski had five points and seven rebounds. St. Paul hosts Tiffin Calvert (7-4) in a non-league game Wednesday. For Monroeville, Perry finished with 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Koch added nine points and five rebounds. Monroeville will play four games in nine days to end January. "We have to pick ourselves up and learn from this and be ready to go next week," Bob Fries said. MONROEVILLE (6-4, 5-2) Maverick Myers 3-0—7, Link Schaffer-Paull 1-1—4, Derek Ackerman 1-0—2, Cole Perry 5-2—12, Caleb Dixon 1-0—2, Colton Koch 4-0—9, Alec Schafer 1-0—2. OTALS 16-3—38 ST. PAUL (7-7, 2-5) Nate Griffin 6-2—16, Casey Fries 1-0—2, Connor Lindenberger 3-0—6, Isaac Kalizewski 2-1—5, Brady Fritz 2-0—5, Landon Fries 2-4—8. TOTALS 18-7—44 Monroeville 8 8 9 13 — 38 St. Paul 6 13 12 13 — 44 Three-point goals: Monroeville 3 (Myers, Schaffer-Paull, Koch); St. Paul 5 (Griffin 4, Fritz)