Perryville, SV boys to compete in second ‘Border War’ Saturday

It is an idea that is finally coming to fruition. The Perryville and St. Vincent boys basketball teams will compete in the “Border War Shootout” this Saturday at the Perry Park Center.
The event is the brainchild of former Perryville boys basketball coach Dustin Wengert, who regularly attends the college basketball game between the University of Missouri and the University of Illinois in St. Louis.
“To see the black and gold on one side and the orange and blue on the other is just amazing,” Wengert said in January 2020. “I always wanted to being that type of thing to a high school setting. I put my heads together with some other coaches and sent some emails out and got a very good response.”
The event was scheduled to hold the first version of the event in 2020, but it was cancelled due to COVID-19. The event will pit five Missouri high schools against a quartet of Illinois schools. The Missouri schools are Perryville, St. Vincent, Jefferson R-7, Valle Catholic and Ste. Genevieve, while the Illinois schools are New Athens, Chester, Marissa/Coulterville, Red Bud and Waterloo. There will be one point given to the state whose team win each game, with the winning state being named based on number of points/wins.
Last season, St. Vincent defeated Marissa/Coulterville 60-37 and New Athens defeated Perryville 67-56. In other action, Red Bud defeated Valle Catholic 70-61, Ste. Genevieve defeated Waterloo 61-54 in overtime and Chester beat Jefferson R-7 49-39. Illinois won the first Border War 3-2.
The event replaces the JCAA shootout that Perryville and St. Vincent have played in for the past few seasons. Perryville has traditionally competed in the Chester Invitational Tournament, while St. Vincent has not scheduled an Illinois school for more than two decades.
St. Vincent coach Bruce Valleroy said the border war sounded like a good idea.
I think it will be good,” Valleroy said. “It showcases the area and it will be against someone who we have not played before. So, it’s always interesting to see how it goes.”
One week before the event, the five schools from both states ranked each other to figure out each teams will face off. The goal is not to create a sense of a mismatch.

“The games don’t have to go to overtime or come down to the final possessions to be considered good games,” Wengert said. “The goal is to create an environment where the final score isn’t like 20 points because nobody wants to see that
About 15 years ago, the Park Center hosted the “Heartland Hoopfest” that showcased local schools as well as teams like Vashon, Charleston, Webster Groves, and even White Station (Tenn.), but it was imperative for Wengert to make this just local teams.
“Our goal is to keep this as local as possible,” Wengert said. “I wanted to stress local teams that people from this area are familiar with. Outside of [Jefferson], every team is within 30 minutes from Perryville. The team that I really wanted to make sure was onboard Chester so that we could make this thing a true border war. “We want teams and fans to have a good time, so that they want to come back. Good, quality basketball with names and faces we recognize, is how we achieve that.”

Schedule

10 a.m. - Perryville vs. New Athens
11:30 a.m. - Jefferson R-7 vs. Marissa/Coulterville
1 p.m. – Valle Catholic vs. Chester
2:30 p.m. – St. Vincent vs Waterloo
5 p.m. - Ste. Genevieve vs. Red Bud