• Wes Bloomquist •
• Originally published January 3, 2009 at 12:10 a.m., updated January 3, 2009 at 12:10 a.m.

Coaches always want to see their teams play hard and be tested in non-district games. On Friday, St. Joseph's Stan Platz and Van Vleck's Randolph Brown both left the St. Joseph gymnasium feeling good about their meeting.

Van Vleck took the game 52-47 over the Flyers, but it was close throughout. The two teams exchanged leads six times in the second half before an old fashion three-point play by Devon Ward gave the Leopards the separation they needed to secure the win.

"I think this was our best defensive performance of the year," said Platz whose Flyers play today at 2:30 p.m. against the St. Joseph alumni. "They are a very good team, and our kids showed a lot of guts. If we play like we did against Van Vleck, then we'll be a playoff team."

Hakeem Blackmon and C.J. Griggs led the Leopards with 16 points each, while Trent Freeman went for eight in the win. Van Vleck led 26-22 at halftime with Griggs leading the way with 10 at the break.

Blackmon hit three 3-pointers in a game where the two teams combined to shoot 5 of 25 from beyond the arc.

"Hakeem and C.J. stepped up against their defense," Van said Brown of his team that moved to 12-7 with the win. "It was a good game for us. We have the talent, we just have to go out and execute and that's what we did at the end of the game."

St. Joseph (11-13) shot 2-for-11 on its 3-pointers, with Clark Pantel hitting both. Pantel led the Flyers with 16 points, while Kier Wells finished with 14. Wells and Travis Cole were forced to step up with an injury to Luke Dornak taking him out of the game, and possibly for the next couple of weeks.

Cole finished with nine points, while Wells sparked a third quarter comeback which put the Flyers up after he scored six straight points.

"We had some errors on offense and missed free throws, but we played well," said Wells who went 2-for-5 from the free-throw line and shooting 60 percent from the field. "They are a very athletic team and gave us a good test. We still have a ways to go to be at full potential, but we're playing really good."

St. Joseph committed 18 turnovers against the Leopards, but know they will probably not see a team with as much speed and quickness the rest of the season. The Flyers fell good going into the second half of district, and know they've come along way since their opening game loss against Faith Academy to start the season.

"We've worked a lot on our team chemistry," Pantel said. "There was a time in the beginning when it was tough without some of our guys, but we're playing well together now. That's really helped our season turn around."

• Van Vleck 52, St. Joseph 47

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