STE. GENEVIEVE — The St. Vincent boys basketball team opened play in the annual Valle Catholic Christmas tournament with a 40-point victory over Zalma, beating the Bulldogs (3-7) 75-35 on Dec. 27.
St. Vincent coach Bruce Valleroy said his team was ready to go right out of the gate.
“We were up 17-2 after the first quarter,” Valleroy said. “[Zalma] scored their two points probably in the last minute of the quarter. And then we were up 39-20 at halftime. They scored 18 points [in the second quarter], but I think they hit 3 three-pointers in the last minute.”
Valleroy said those three-pointers were the result of his team getting a little comfortable with its big lead.
“We were pretty comfortable, up like probably 39-11 or so. At the last minute of the quarter, they came down and hit a few threes on us and made it 39-20.”
After the half, the Indians (5-2) outscored the Bulldogs 25-5 in the third quarter to take a 64-29 lead, and finishing out the game with an 11-6 run in the fourth.
St. Vincent senior Max Wheeler saw heavy coverage on the floor, but still managed 15 points for the Indians.
“I thought he played overall a great game,” Valleroy said. He guarded their best player inside, their big kid, and did a real good job on him. Offensively, he might have not shot as much as he usually does, but he got people open and made a lot of great passes.”
Wheeler also had 8 rebounds, 6 assists and 3 steals to go with his points.
The Indians were led by junior Colden Prost with 23 points on 10-of-16 shooting, followed by freshman Clay Ellis with 21 points on 7-of- 12 shooting, including 4 three-pointers.
SPARTA, Ill. — Max Wheeler scored 22 points to lead the St. Vincent Indians to an 11-point victory over the Red Bud (Ill.) Musketeers at the Border War Shootout at Sparta (Ill.) High School on Dec. 20.
“All seven of our guys scored for us, which is awesome,” said St. Vincent coach Broce Valleroy. “Any time you can get them all to score, that makes you pretty good. We hit 10 three-pointers from six different guys.”
Junior Colden Prost finished with 15 points, while Clay Ellis and Quinton Whistler had 8 each. Case Huber finished with 7, Liam Nations had 6, and Cain Clifton 3.
“We had the lead most of the way,” Valleroy said. “They did cut it to one with about four minutes to go, but we responded right back, built the lead back up. “
They had two guards that can really score, and we did a great job guarding them. They had to earn their points. We did a good job defensively, helping out, helping each other out on team defense, and it was basically a good team win overall for us.”
