Things looked bleak for the St. Vincent boys entering the fourth quarter. The Indians were down 19 points against top seed Principia going into the final quarter, and St. Vincent deployed a full court press and started a rally.
Unfortunately, the rally fell short as St. Vincent fell 58-45 in the Class 2, District 4 final on Friday at Crystal City.
“I’m proud of our effort,” St. Vincent coach Bruce Valleroy said. “We knew we had a big matchup on our hands with Principia’s big kid inside. We played our hearts out. We did everything we could.”
St. Vincent was down 46-27 entering the fourth quarter and went into a full court press that created multiple turnovers, which St. Vincent converted into points. Grant Abernathy buried a pair of three-pointers and Blake Monier hit another as St. Vincent eventually cut the deficit to 50-45 with one minute to go in the game. St. Vincent went on an 18+4 run for seven minutes in the fourth. Principia made just one shot in the fourth quarter.
“We had that press in the back of our mind as something we could do to get back in the game,” Valleroy said. “We could have gone to it earlier, but we were worried about their speed and quickness. We did a great job running it, probably the best we looked all year. We just fell short.”
Principia sealed the game in the final minute going 8 for 8 from the free throw line.
Monier led the way for St. Vincent with 17 points, while Abernathy had 13 and Jacob Schremp added 7 points.
Principia was led by Stephen Okoro’s 20 points (18 in the first half) and 22 rebounds, while Ben Okoro had 17 points. Jaylen Edwards had 8.
Principia defeated St. Vincent 71-43 in December and Edwards had 24 points, while Stephen Okoro had 12. However, in the district final, Okoro was a terror on the offensive boards. Okoro repeatedly rebounded his teammates misses and put them back up. He scored 8 of Principia’s first 10 points as the Panthers went up 10-2.
“He blocked everything we threw up there,” Valleroy said. “Our plan was to stay outside on the perimeter and pick our spots. Once we settled into the game, he didn’t do much. The guard got us the first game and we made an effort to slow him down and I thought our guards did a good job on him. Number 25 probably had the game of his life. He only scored four the first time against us and had nearly 20 tonight.”
Principia stretched the lead to double digits in the second quarter and led 30-19 and outscored St. Vincent 19-8 in the third quarter.
St. Vincent ends the season at 16-12 and graduates seven seniors.
“It was an up and down season and were 2-7 in close games,” Valleroy said. “We win some of those and we win 20 games. We never gave up and when we lost a game or two we came back ready to play the next one. The seniors will be missed and are not only good basketball players, but good human beings as well.”
