DELTA — St. Vincent senior Max Wheeler scored 29 points, and junior guard Colden Prost added 20, but it wasn’t enough to prevent a 71-60 loss to Caruthersville at the Delta Shootout on Jan. 10, ending an eight-game winning streak for the Indians (9-3).
“I’m very proud of our effort,” said St. Vincent coach Bruce Valleroy. “We came out and got off to a little bit of a slow start. Once we got our feet wet a little bit and realized what kind of competition we were playing, we really got after it.”
While the Indians didn’t come away with the victory, there was some sense of accomplishment — at least for one player. Wheeler, the team’s only senior, broke the school’s all-time career varsity scoring record during the fourth quarter, just prior to fouling out for the first time this season.
“He broke [the record] early in the fourth quarter because he fouled out with 7 minutes to go,” Valleroy said. “We were only down four at the time, and that’s probably the first time he’s ever fouled out in his life.”
Wheeler finished the game with 1,269 points scored for the varsity Indians, putting him just ahead of the previous record-holder, Alex Armbruster, who finished his career with 1,264 points after playing point guard for St. Vincent during its 35-30 loss to Marionville in the 2005 Class 2 state championship game.
While Wheeler certainly held a chunk of the spotlight, Valleroy had big praise for Prost as well.
“He’s started since his freshman year,” Valleroy said. “This is his third year a starter. He started the first day he walked in the gym for us because we needed him because of our numbers, and he has just stepped up and been one of our leaders. He works hard in the off-season, also. Basketball is his love, and he does a great job getting us in our offense, and he’s got those long arms on the press and plays good defense for us. Whenever we need someone to stop somebody, we look to him to help us out there.”
The Indians took a short-lived lead, 23-21, by the end of the first quarter, but Caruthersville’s defense rose to the challenge, holding the Indians to 8 points in the second quarter as the Tigers went up 38-31 at the half.
“It was a battle,” Valleroy said. “It was a good experience for us. We don’t see those kinds of teams up in this area. I thought we battled from the beginning all the way to the end.”
The second half played out much like the first, as the Indians resurged in the third quarter, outscoring the Tigers 18-13 to close the gap to 51-49. The final quarter saw the Tigers take a 20-11 run to set the final margin.
Senior Quawnterrious McVay led the Tigers with 25 points and 9 rebounds, followed by sophomore Charman Tillman with 16 points, junior Deemarion Rodgers with 14 and senior Sammy Bryant with 12.
“When we win districts and go to sectionals beyond, we’re going to play this kind of competition,” Valleroy said.”We needed to play someone like this just to get ready for teams like this. If you ever want to win a state championship, go to the final four, whatever the case may be, these are the teams you need to play. It was a good match-up for us.”
ST. VINCENT 68, CRYSTAL CITY 37
Senior forward Max Wheeler scored a game-high 25 points to lead the St. Vincent Indians to their eighth consecutive victory, topping visiting Crystal City by 31 points on Jan. 9 in their Jefferson County Athletic Association conference opener.
“I thought we did a good job right off the bat,” said St. Vincent coach Bruce Valleroy. “We wanted to come out and set the tone right away, and I thought that we did. They didn’t handle the pressure very well.”
The Indians outscored Crystal City (1-10) 27-7 in the first quarter, and the Hornets were unable to recover. Junior Colden Prost added 15 points for the Indians, who built a 44-17 lead by halftime.
ST. VINCENT 67, VALLE CATHOLIC 59
In a strange trick of scheduling, the St. Vincent Indians squared off with the Valle Catholic Warriors a week after facing them in the championship round of the Valle Catholic Winter Classic, and while the end result was the same, the road to get there was much different.
In the Winter Classic, the Indians rolled to a 72-48 victory to claim the title, having little problem handling the Warrior’s defense. On Jan. 7, it proved more difficult.
“It’s always tough to play a team back-to-back,” said St. Vincent coach Bruce Valleroy. “You’ve got to give them some credit. They made some adjustments, and they shot the ball really well the first half. We had a pretty good game overall. We had four kids in double figures, and we stuck with it all the way through.”
Further complicating the matchup was Valle coach Dusty Wengert, who has a bit of an inside track on the way Valleroy’s mind works and how his teams play.
“He played for me,” said Valleroy, who also previously served as St. Vincent’s athletic director. “He graduated in 1999, and we’ve been pretty good friends ever since. He actually coached soccer for me here and won a state championship. He’s very intelligent, and he knows a few of the things we’ve done over the years and stuff that we probably even did when he played. We’ve played each other before several times.”
Senior Max Wheeler led St. Vincent with 19 points and 14 rebounds, followed by junior Colden Prost with 14 points, freshman Clay Ellis with 12 points, and freshman Liam Nations with 11 points.
For Valle, senior Evan Viox had 14 points; juniors Alex Staab and Brody Bertrand had 12 each; and junior Phillip Naeger had 10.
