CHAFFEE — In a close game, even the little things make an impact.
Early foul trouble for two of your top offensive threats can’t really be called little, but that still had a huge impact on the St. Vincent Indians in a 70-61 road loss to Chaffee on Dec. 16.
“It was pretty well close all the way,” said St. Vincent boys basketball coach Bruce Valleroy. “We got in some serious foul trouble in the first half. Max Wheeler had four fouls in the first half, and Colden Prost had three fouls in the first half, so that kind of hurt us. They made a little run at the end of the half to take the lead on us. And then the second half kind of was just back and forth all the way through.
“We kind of went cold shooting for a while, and that was enough to have them win the game.”
Chaffee (5-2) led by 6 — 36-30 — at halftime and took a 10-point lead into the fourth quarter. St. Vincent (4- 2) outscored the Red Devils 19-18 in the fourth quarter, but just couldn’t close the gap.
Despite his early foul trouble, Wheeler, the team’s only senior, still managed to put on a show, scoring 32 of the Indians’ points — a game-high total — while collecting 5 rebounds and 3 steals along the way.
“He played a great game offensively,” Valleroy said. “He got in foul trouble, but it really didn’t bother him offensively. He really shot the ball well for us and attacked the basket.”
Prost, a junior, also finished with 4 fouls, and managed 7 points, 3 rebounds and 3 assists. Three other St. Vincent players finished with 3 fouls.
As a team, St. Vincent shot 40 percent from the floor, while Chaffee topped 58 percent and scored 19 points off turnovers. The Red Devils scored 46 points in the paint and out-rebounded St. Vincent 33-19.
“We didn’t get many rebounds,” Valleroy said. “They were a little taller than us. And especially there in the third quarter, they kind of hit the offensive boards on us and kind of took advantage of our foul trouble and stuff. It was tough to defend them around the basket.”
Chaffee was led by junior Nolan Fowler, who finished with 26 points, 8 rebounds and 4 steals. Junior Dane McMullin had 14 points, 3 rebounds and 2 blocks, while junior Rolen Reischman had 10 points, 12 rebounds and 6 assists.
Having Prost, who has averaged 13.2 points per game through five games, in foul trouble played a big role in the loss, Valleroy said.
“It was kind of funny,” Valleroy said. “He picked up three fouls in a minute in the second quarter there. I think there was 6.30 on the clock when he picked up his third foul in the second quarter. So he sat the rest of the quarter, and that really hurt us because we got to have him out on the floor for his ball handling, his defense, and his scoring.”
That second quarter with Prost on the bench was when Chaffee stretched its lead, scoring 22 points, its highest quarterly point total in the game.
There was also a healthy dose of pure bad luck.
“A great example was — I think it might have been the fourth quarter — we stole the ball, went down, missed a layup, got the rebound, missed, got the rebound again and missed again, right by the basket. We had three looks right there, but we just couldn’t put the ball in the hole. That happens sometimes.”
