St. Vincent boys basketball coach Bruce Valleroy was actually the first one to ask a question after the game on Monday.
“Where was that effort the whole game?” the veteran coach said.
In some respects Valleroy may be correct. The Indians nearly overcame a 16-point second half deficit, but their last second shot as time expired fell short as fifth seeded Valle Catholic defeated fourth seeded St. Vincent 65-62 on Tuesday in the opening round of the Winter Warrior Classic on Tuesday at Valle Catholic High School.
“I don’t want to make excuses, but we haven’t played since Dec. 19 and only had two practices since then as well,” Valleroy said. “We were supposed to play last Tuesday against Jefferson, but that game was pushed back and it was already on the schedule to give them the days leading up to Christmas off. That’s no excuse because Valle was in the same boat as us. I thought we came out flat at times and were rusty. Once we got into the flow of things we looked pretty good.”
Blake Monier led the way with 20 points, while Simon Unterreiner and Grant Abernathy each had 10 points. Valle was led by Chase Fallert with 25 and Harry Oliver with 15 points.
The Indians trailed 32-27 at the half and usually make some good halftime adjustments leading in the third quarter.
However, it was Valle that came out with energy after halftime. The Warriors hit a three to start the quarter and then Carson Tucker had a three-point play to stretch the lead to double digits at 38-27.
Valle Catholic post player Harry Oliver dominated in the paint in the quarter with multiple putbacks as he widened the lead to 50-34 with three minutes to go in the third quarter. Things went back to worse as St. Vincent leading scorer Evan DeWilde collected his fifth foul in the quarter and was forced to sit the rest of the game.
Valleroy didn’t feel as if his team played up to their capabilities coming out of halftime.
“I thought we let things bother us tonight that don’t really control,” Valleroy said. “Whether that be arguing with each other or some of the foul calls or whatever the situation was. When we finally realized that we could play well together, we made a great comeback.”
St. Vincent showed signs of life when Dylan DeWilde converted on a three-point play with two minutes left in the third quarter as the Indians closed the third on a 7-1 run and trailed 51-41.
The run continued as Simon Unterreiner put back a missed shot and Grant Abernathy came away with a steal and passed ahead to Dylan DeWilde for a basket to cut the Warrior lead to 54-49 with six minutes remaining in the game.
“I thought once we started trapping in the second half it forced our guys to wake up and forced Valle to go faster than maybe they wanted,” Valleroy said. “It forced them into some bad passes and allowed us to get back into the game.”
Neither team could gain the upperhand until the final minute when St. Vincent’s Dane Kline hit a three-pointer with 48 seconds left to give Valle a 61-57 lead. St. Vincent forced Valle to to the free throw line on three separate occasions in the final minute and the Warriors were true going 6-6.
The Indians were clutch as well as Grant Abernathy hit a runner in the lane and Blake Monier hit a pull up three with seven seconds remaining to set up plenty of drama and the final play of the game.
Valleory subbed in his tallest player Eli Clements to guard the inbounds pass, and the Valle inbounder could not find an open teammate. So he attempted to bounce the ball off the leg of Clements to reset the referee’s five count, but instead, Clements picked it up and eventualy the ball found Abernathy in the corner, who missed the final shot of the game.
“I really wanted to make it tough for the inbounder on the play,” Valleroy said. “The rest of the guys were playing in-your-face defense to try to get a five second count or a steal. Eli did a great job of getting the steal. Our guys realized we needed a three and we got our best shooter an open shot and it just didn’t fall. The law of averages was not on our side.”
The game was close in the first half with neither team having an extended lead. Valle led 15-12 after the first quarter, and was able to stretch that to seven.
Valleroy hopes that his team learns from the expereince and is better for it.
“We can go one of two ways after a loss like this,” he said. “We can either get better or allow this to affect us for the rest of the year. I thought we responded well after losing in the Crystal City tournament. The main thing is just playing games. We have played just seven games this year and it’s almost January.”
