St. Paul rallies for double-overtime win

Dec. 4—NORWALK — The first mistake didn't elicit a reaction.

But when another opportunity slipped by, St. Paul sophomore Korey Frazee couldn't hide his frustration.

"I was very down to be honest," Frazee said.

In the closing seconds of regulation and Saturday's non-league game vs. Fremont St. Joseph tied at 49, a wide-open Frazee took a pass from classmate Nolan McCall on the left wing.

And he fumbled it out of bounds.

Then, after the opening tip of the second overtime, Frazee was sent to the free-throw line after a technical foul on the Crimson Streaks. But two unfriendly bounces later, he missed them both.

However, just 42 seconds later, Frazee atoned with a deep 3-pointer from the right corner to give the Flyers the lead for good in the 60-56 double-overtime win inside Harvey Keller Gymnasium.

The Flyers (1-2) had trailed by 12 at halftime and by 11 with just over four minutes left in the third quarter.

"I have great coaches and teammates who lifted my spirits," said Frazee, who scored a game-high 20 points on 6-of-11 shooting. "I hit that shot right in front of the student section, and it was a nice adrenaline rush. I'm just glad it went in."

Despite the setbacks — the Flyers struggled mightily to put the game away after rallying — Frazee never hesitated.

"Confidence and trust in myself," he said. "That's all it is."

When SJCC's Jackson Wright put his team up 34-23 at the 4:34 mark of the third quarter, it looked like St. Paul was headed to a third loss in five nights to begin the season.

But a basket from junior Evan Wangler and consecutive scores by senior Brock Tice cut the deficit to 34-29 just over a minute later to give the Flyers new life.

Still, St. Paul trailed 40-33 with under a minute to go in the third. Wangler closed the quarter with another basket, then two foul shots by Frazee to open the fourth got the Flyers within one possession (40-37) with 6:57 left.

Down 43-39, the Flyers then got a big lift from junior Michael Kirk. The guard followed a Nolan McCall basket from close range with a pair of foul shots to tie the game at 43 with 2:20 remaining.

After Frazee added two more with 1:52 left for St. Paul's first lead (45-43) since the opening basket of the game, it was Kirk again drawing the foul after an empty Streaks possession.

Two more makes at the line— Kirk was 8-of-8 for the game — then saw St. Paul take a four-point lead. Kirk's lone basket from the floor came with 1:18 left for a 49-45 lead, and capped a 26-11 scoring spree.

"Michael can be a really special player," St. Paul coach Steve Minor said. "He broke his foot and wasn't able to play all summer. He hasn't played with some of these guys until now.

"We thought it would help us and him by giving him a couple quarters of JV to get him going, and he played really well," he added. "We hoped it would carry over tonight with no JV, and he really lifted us there in the fourth."

But SJCC battled back with two baskets in the final minute around a St. Paul miss at the line. That led to the Flyers trying to run down the clock for a final shot, and both teams came up empty to force overtime.

In the first overtime, the Streaks scored first and split a pair of free throws for a 52-49 lead with 1:55 remaining. The Flyers then got a huge left corner 3 from McCall on their next possession to tie the game with 1:33 left.

Once again, both teams struggled to finish. Missed foul shots and turnovers by both teams eventually forced a second overtime.

"You got it back this far, don't let it slip away," Minor said of his message to his team in the second OT. "Each one of them stepped up at different times. Nolan's 3 in the corner was big. But our defense on those final possessions ... they didn't get the shots they needed, and that's a credit to our guys for the way they played."

After Frazee's triple opened the second OT, the Flyers continued to lead by 1-to-2 points over the next three-plus minutes.

Trailing 58-56 with 10.3 seconds left, the Streaks (1-3) had one more chance. They were able to get the ball into the left corner, but before a last-ditch shot, the final timeout was called with two seconds left.

Inbounding from the left sideline inside of half-court, the Streaks threw the ball toward the backboard with hopes of a catch and shoot near the rim. However, the ball hit the wire above the backboard, and was ruled out of bounds for the turnover.

Kirk was then fouled with 1.1 seconds left and made both foul shots for the final margin.

After two 13-0 scoring runs proved critical in losses at Vermilion and vs. Crestview, a third loss would have been a disastrous first week for St. Paul.

"It was just our will," Frazee said. "Coach Minor got a little loud in the locker room (at halftime) as we know he can get, but it was just a will to win. We gave up some big runs in all three games, but we were able to get the win today.

"It will feel a little bit better when we go back and watch the film and see how we can stop these scoring runs."

Minor said Frazee's big three just the type of mindset his young team with just two seniors will need going forward.

"That's the kind of mentality Korey has," he said. "He loves basketball and really does put the work in year-round, and I'm glad it's paying dividends for him. The upperclassmen were just as quick to give him credit. Korey can do that, but so can Michael, Sam (Scavuzzo), Evan and Nolan — they can all do it. All our kids.

"They just have to quit worrying about who's turn is it and just go play and find out. It didn't surprise me when he hit that three. He has that mentality that the next shot is always going in."

Wangler finished with 11 points and seven rebounds before fouling out with 2:44 left in the first overtime. Kirk had 10 points, all in the fourth quarter and overtimes. McCall added eight points and seven rebounds.

"It wasn't a lot of adjustments," Minor said of the comeback. "We were finally able to switch up some defenses we had worked on this week. There were probably a few attention getters said at halftime, but really I asked them what else they needed.

"We knew everything they were going to do, but we didn't do what we needed to do very well. Instead of just beating them down, we challenged them ... we just challenged them — and they responded to it."

The St. Paul junior varsity team improved to 3-0 with a 50-21 win. Brock Houck scored 16 points and Dan Schwan added 10.

FRE. SJCC (1-3)

Clay Stull 2-2—6; Cooper Talikka 6-0—14; Jackson Wright 8-2—18; Sam Path 1-1—3; Brandon Grahl 1-1—3; Grant Pert 3-2—8. TOTALS 23-8—56.

ST. PAUL (1-2)

Michael Kirk 1-8—10; Ian Deeter 1-1—3; Korey Frazee 6-6—20; Brock Tice 2-2—6; Nolan McCall 3-1—8; Sam Scavuzzo 1-0—2; Evan Wangler 5-1—11. TOTALS 19-19—60.

St. Joseph 10 20 10 9 3 4 — 56

St. Paul 6 12 17 14 3 8 — 60

3-point FGs: (SJ) Talikka 2; (SP) Frazee 2, McCall.

JV: St. Paul, 50-21.