HUNTINGTON -- When Tuesday night's game completed, Huntington St. Joe's girls basketball team had celebrated its 20th straight win against an in-state opponent, dating back to the 2008 Class A state championship game.

Huntington St. Joe high school coach Shannon Lewis wasn't smiling, however.

He knows if the streak is to continue, his team must play better than it did in its 54-36 win over Charleston Catholic.

"We hit some shots and did some good things in the first half, but we turned it over a lot and were never really in sync in the second half," Lewis said. "We'll take the win and realize we've got a few things to work on."

Huntington St. Joe (13-5) jumped out to a 16-point halftime lead on account of its strong defense that forced Charleston Catholic into 26 turnovers for the game.

However, luck of the Irish turned to the Charleston namesakes (Charleston Catholic is also the Irish) in the second half as Huntington St. Joe committed 15 of its 19 turnovers while taking ill-advised shots. Lewis said his team was simply going through the motions.

"I don't know if we got lax because we got out to a lead or what, but they just outscrapped us the entire second half," Lewis said. "We didn't care of the ball on top of it. When you do that, teams are going to hang around with you."

The game had a similar feel to last season's Class A championship when Huntington St. Joe earned its first girls basketball state title by jumping out early on Charleston Catholic and holding on for a 63-53 win.

On Tuesday, Huntington St. Joe forced nine first quarter turnovers and used a 13-2 run early in the second quarter to jump out to a 32-14 advantage following a jumper by Sara Sang with 2:10 left before halftime.

The lead would grow to as many as 23 in the third quarter before Charleston Catholic (7-9) used a 12-3 run to cut it to 48-34 with 4:10 left in the game. It's as close as the contest would be as Huntington St. Joe reeled off six straight points to thwart any rally.

Sang led all scorers with 16 points while Stephanie Dorsey added 10 for Huntington St. Joe, which will celebrate Senior Night on Thursday at home against Winfield.

Capen Evans and Victoria Thomas led Charleston Catholic with 12 points each. Evans fell one rebound shy of a double-double.

CHARLESTON CATHOLIC 10 8 6 12 -- 36: Whelan 2, Thomas 12, Hoyer 8, Evans 12, Casey 2

HUNTINGTON ST. JOE 19 15 11 9 -- 54: Chapman 8, Smith 7, Sang 16, Dorsey 10, Keeton 7, Adkins 4, Chadwick 2

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