St. Vincent boys basketball coach Bruce Valleroy was worried about how his team would be able to guard Herculaneum guard Gabe Watkins.
He was worried for good reason.
The Blackcat senior scored 26 points and converted several key baskets in the fourth quarter as top seeded Herculaneum defeated three seed St. Vincent 51-42 in the championship game of the Rolla “Duke” Herbert Tournament in Crystal City Dec. 2.
“Watkins is the conference MVP from last year,” Valleroy said. “We knew he would try to take over late when they needed him.”
That he did.
Watkins, who was eventually named the tournament MVP, tied the game at 40-40 with five minutes left in regulation and went on to scored six of the next eight points. Watkins went 9 of 19 from the field and took 40 percent of the shots for the Blackcats in the game.
While the Blackcats got hot in the fourth quarter, the Indians went cold.
Grant Abernathy hit a three-pointer to put St. Vincent ahead 38-36 early in the final quarter, but from there scored two points in the final five minutes.
“We are putting in a lot of new stuff and we are just three games into the season,” Valleroy said. “It’s going to take us a few games to get used to everything different we want to do. Once we do everything will look a lot smoother.”
St. Vincent looked well on its way to claiming the tournament title in the first quarter as a steal and basket by Payton Strattman gave St. Vincent a 10-3 lead early. The Indians led 15-8 after the first quarter.
The Indians went cold to start the second quarter as it took nearly four minutes for St. Vincent to get its first points off a three-pointer from Grant Abernathy. St. Vincent shot 34 percent for the game, including 3 of 10 from beyond the arc.
“We were on 40 forever in the fourth quarter and on 15 forever in the fourth quarter,” Valleroy said.
Blake Monier led the way for the Indians with 20 points, but was the lone player for St. Vincent in double figures. Abernathy had nine points, while Simon Unterreiner had six points and 11 rebounds.
Monier and Abernathy made the all-tournament team for their efforts during the week. Monier averaged just over 20 points during the tournament, while Abernathy scored 13 points per game.
St. Vincent (2-1) will travel to Oak Ridge Friday to continue its season.
“I told the boys after the game that it does stink that we lost,” Valleroy said. “However, we want that championship at the end of the year when we come back up here for the district tournament. The goal is to get better every day until that time.”
