After suffering a pair of tough losses, the St. Vincent boys basketball team was looking for something good.
On Jan. 16, they found what they were looking for, as the Indians (10-4) rolled to a 76-43 victory over the Oran Eagles (2-11) at St. Vincent High School in Perryville.
“We came out, and we executed at the offensive end,” said St. Vincent coach Bruce Valleroy. “We played really well. We had four kids in double figures and pretty well won every quarter we played. It was a great night for us overall.”
Junior Colden Prost led the Indians with 19 points, followed by senior Max Wheeler with 18. A pair of freshmen — Clay Ellis and Liam Nations — rounded out the list of Indians in double figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Junior Case Huber had 9.
“Any time you have that many kids in double figures, a great thing’s probably going to happen,” Valleroy said. “You’re probably going to win the game, hopefully.”
St. Vincent took an early 11-4 lead in the first quarter and was up 42-22 at the half.
“We scored 18 points in the third quarter and 16 points in the fourth quarter and ended up winning pretty big,”
Valleroy said. It was Prost’s second consecutive night leading the Indians, as teams focus much of their defensive efforts on the 6-3 Wheeler, the team’s tallest player and only senior.
“That’s what I’ve kind of said from day one,” Valleroy said. “You know, it’s not Max’s team or Colden’s team. It’s everybody’s, and we expect everybody to step up for us and play their roles and do what’s asked of them. It was a great night for that. I think everybody played their roles and did what they were asked and really got after it at both ends of the floor.”
For Oran, senior Reid Hobbs had 11 points, followed by junior Dean Morgan with 10.
St. Vincent shot a combined 45 percent from the floor — including 9-of-30 three-point attempts — and 72 percent from the free-throw line. Oran shot 29.3 percent from inside the arc and 35.7 percent from long range, making 5-of-14 three-point attempts.
ADVANCE 74, ST. VINCENT 58
Junior Colden Prost scored a game-high 30 points and senior Max Wheeler finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds for St. Vincent, but it wasn’t enough to prevent a loss — the Indians’ second consecutive — to Advance on Jan. 13 in Perryville.
“You’ve got to give them a lot of credit,” said St. Vincent coach Bruce Valleroy. “They came in and shot the lights out.”
The Hornets (6-7) were hot from the start — and kept it going — taking a 20-11 lead after one quarter, going into halftime up 40-28, and leading 58-44 after three quarters.
“They probably ended up shooting close to 70 percent in the game,” Valleroy said. “They executed their offense, and they made 30 two-pointers and 3 three-pointers. That’s 33 possessions they scored on. I don’t think it was our lack of defense. It was just their great execution.”
In fact, Advance shot a combined 61.1 percent from the floor, finishing 30-of-45 inside the arc and 3-of-9 from long range, or 66.7 percent and 33.3 percent, respectively.
Valleroy said his team just couldn’t find a rhythm.
“We didn’t really shoot the ball that well, but we hung in there,” Valleroy said. “We battled all the way through, and just didn’t really get into a flow of things. Our guys just couldn’t put the ball in the basket for us. They played hard. They got after it and everything. We just didn’t execute like we normally do.”
Eight of Advance’s nine players scored, led by junior Brodie Rogers with 22 and senior Hunter Rodgers with 14 points and 8 rebounds.
