After a string of six wins, the St. John's Bluejays's good fortune finally ran out on Saturday. They opened the new year with a less-than-successful 65-58 loss to Shawnee. St. John's was given a dose of their own medicine in this game as Shawnee apparently hadn't forgotten their defeat the last time these teams played back in January of 2023.
Beckett Bertke continued his habit of posting crazy stat lines for Shawnee, scoring 35 points along with seven rebounds. The matchup was Bertke's 11th in a row with at least ten points. Another player making a difference was Tate Bender, who scored 12 points.
St. John's defeat ended a seven-game streak of away wins dating back to last season and brought them to 8-2. As for Shawnee, their victory was their third straight at home, which pushed their record up to 7-4.
Both teams are looking forward to the support of their home crowds in their upcoming games. St. John's will take on Fort Recovery at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Fort Recovery is coming into the contest on a four-game losing streak. Shawnee and Defiance will face off at 7:30 p.m. on January 12th without much rest after finishing up games yesterday. Defiance will have to bring their A-game into this one, as they are staring down a pretty big deficit in the MaxPreps Ohio Rankings (they are ranked 382nd, while Shawnee is ranked 185th).
