It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t easy. And it certainly wasn’t decided until the final buzzer.
But when it mattered most, St. Vincent found a way.
Behind a gritty defensive effort and a composed final stand, the Indians edged Perryville 33-32 on Saturday to claim the boys' title at the 26th annual Mayor’s Cup at the Perry Park Center in Perryville, surviving a low-scoring battle that came down to the final possession and earning a little payback for last season’s loss.
With less than 23 seconds left in the game, St. Vincent’s only senior, Max Wheeler, scored on a fast-break layup to give the Indians a one-point lead that — thanks to the Indians’ defense and a little bad luck for the Pirates — proved to be the decisive basket.
“I knew it was close,” Wheeler said, “and I knew somebody was going to step up. I know I can trust in my teammates.”
Wheeler, who spent most of the game battling Perryville’s big man, senior forward Josiah Paisley, finished with 20 points, including 4 three-pointers. Colden Prost, who made the pass to set Wheeler up for the winning basket, finished with 4 points, but led the team in assists with eight. Clay Ellis had 6 points and 6 rebounds.
“This is always a great game to win,” Wheeler said of the annual crosstown rivalry.
The game was tight from the opening tip, with neither team able to generate much offense in a gym that has a habit of swallowing shots. St. Vincent led 8-7 after the first quarter, only to see Perryville take a 16-14 lead into halftime.
“I don’t know what it is about this gym,” said St. Vincent coach Bruce Valleroy. “Both teams just don’t shoot the ball well down here. We’ve been shooting the ball really well most of the season, and tonight it just wouldn’t go in.”
That trend continued throughout the night. St. Vincent finished shooting 27.1 percent from the field, while Perryville shot 33.3 percent. Three-point looks were plentiful, but conversions were not, and nearly every basket felt magnified as the score crawled along.
The third quarter proved to be the most productive stretch for either team. St. Vincent outscored Perryville 14-10 in the period to reclaim the lead, leaning on defensive stops and second-effort plays to gain some breathing room.
Still, nothing came easy.
Perryville kept it a one-possession game deep into the fourth quarter, answering nearly every St. Vincent score with one of its own. With under a minute to play, the Pirates had multiple chances to grab the lead, but shots around the basket refused to fall.
“We had two or three opportunities right around the basket with about 30 or 40 seconds left,” said Perryville coach Eli Sample. “They just didn’t fall for us. That’s how it goes sometimes.”
Seniors Aiden Wendel and Cole Rodewald finished with 10 points apiece to lead the Pirates in the loss.
St. Vincent led by one in the final seconds and appeared poised to foul and force Perryville to inbound the ball again, but chaos ensued after a deflection near midcourt. The Indians regrouped quickly, smothered the inbounds play and forced a contested shot at the buzzer that bounced away.
“We only had one team foul, so we had the opportunity to foul and get the ball back,” Valleroy said. “But once it got deflected, it got chaotic. I thought we did a great job guarding the out-of-bounds play, made it rough for them to get it in, and then they missed the shots. That’s how we won the ball game.”
For Valleroy, the ability to close out a game on the defensive end overshadowed the offensive struggles.
“If we could have made any shots throughout the game, it might not have been this close,” he said. “But I wasn’t complaining about our shot selection. We got good looks. The ball just wouldn’t go in the hole.”
St. Vincent’s offense leaned heavily on the perimeter, something Valleroy said is part of the team’s identity.
“If you look at our stats, we’ve shot about 300 twos and nearly 280 threes this year,” he said. “We’re going to shoot a lot of threes. When they fall, it looks great. When they don’t, it looks like it did tonight. But I’m proud of the effort and proud of the way we found a way to win.”
Perryville, meanwhile, walked away encouraged by its defensive performance, even if the result stung.
“I thought defensively, both sides did a really good job,” Sample said. “That’s why it was such a low-scoring game. It was a one-possession game that could’ve gone either way.”
The Pirates had the ball on the final possession with a chance to win, getting it inside with about a second remaining, but the last look wouldn’t fall.
“Upsetting, because we wanted to win,” Sample said. “But it was a good test for us. Defensively, we showed some good things. Offensively, it just wasn’t our night.”
