Attempt to slow down Valle Catholic boys basketball team fails for Meadow Heights in district semifinal loss

BISMARCK, Mo. -- Meadow Heights boys basketball coach Mark Verticchio knew Valle Catholic would be faster and stronger heading into a Class 2 District 3 semifinal Thursday night.

But two days after the Panthers won their first district game in six years, he felt he had prepared his team to slow things down against the Warriors.

That plan never came to fruition for third-seeded Meadow Heights, and the Panthers fell behind early and eventually lost to No. 2 Valle 83-51 at Bismarck High School.

"We came out and I wanted to slow things down, but we're just not used to doing it. We just don't have enough experience to run the slow down game, and I knew we couldn't play that fast with them for the entire game," Verticchio said. "Our kids just got too anxious. They wouldn't run the slow-down type game. People are going to say, 'Well you scored later on.' Well that's different. The game is out of reach by that point. And once it goes out of reach, you're going to score more just because they're not in the game as much defensively. We fell asleep early, and it cost us."

The Panthers scored a basket with 5 minutes, 12 seconds left in the first quarter then didn't score again until the 6:27 mark in the second.

Valle, meanwhile, used a 26-0 run to build a 31-5 lead with 6:40 left in the second. Valle's Connor Basler sparked the scoring streak with a 3 with 3:59 left in the first and added three more from beyond the arc during that span.

"To be honest with you, I've seen Basler play three times and he's never shot like that. The first game I saw them play, they didn't make a 3, and that's the truth," Verticchio said. "So obviously we wanted to closely guard him, but we didn't know he would take off like that. [Daniel] Bergtholdt was the other guy we were looking at, and we shut him down, he didn't hardly do anything, but it didn't matter with him making all of those shots."

Basler finished the game 7 of 10 from 3-point range and 11 of 15 (73 percent) from the field. He added four free throws and finished with 33 points to lead Valle.

Basler had 17 points at halftime and added four assists.

Verticchio said other Valle players also began to hurt the Panthers once they committed to covering Basler and Bergtholdt for the remainder of the first half.

Meadow Heights cut the lead to 34-16 with a 7-2 run midway through the second but was outscored 14-7 for the remainder of the second and trailed 48-23 at the break.

"We were focusing too much on those two guys, so their other kids started to play well. Their No. 15 [Tyler Uding] hit a 3 right before half and you kind of hang your head after that one," Verticchio said. "At that point it's a 27-point game. Then they come back out and are just on fire again. It was everybody. They just could not miss."

Meadow Heights came out a little stronger in the second half, scoring the first seven points of the third. Jacob Hunt had four points during that span and brought the deficit to 48-32 on a jumper with 6:39 remaining in the third.

"I thought Jacob Hunt played a really good game, particularly when you consider that Basler was on him and he's probably their best defender," Verticchio said. "I thought he continued that into the second half and had a really good game for us. Lane Baremore also gave us some good minutes being a freshman. It just wasn't enough against a much better team that we faced tonight."

The Panthers scored 20 points in the third but trailed 69-43 heading to the fourth.

Valle went on another run to start the final period, outscoring Meadow Heights 10-4 to take a 79-48 lead, which started a running clock for the remainder of the game.

Hunt finished with 20 points to lead the Panthers while Douglas added 11.

Meadow Heights will lose just one senior to graduation. Verticchio said that's an advantage to his team, who is already looking forward to next year's district tournament.

"It just comes down to youth. I told our kids, 'Next year coming in here, you improve and you're the No. 2 seed,'" Verticchio said. "At this point, youth isn't looking so bad for us, though. We came in here this season, improved tremendously and I think we're on the right track to being very successful down the road. Overall, it's still a very good year for us at 17-9. I can't complain. Like I've said, our goal was 10 and we got 17. And I told them, 'You did something that's really hard to do. You beat every team you were supposed to and you should be proud,' That's a big jump for us. The question is, I told them, 'What do you do for an encore?' Because people are going to say, 'Wow, six to 17, that means you're going to go 17 to 20.' It doesn't work that easy. It's going to take guys in the weight room, guys playing over the summer and most of all, we have got to improve on our shooting."

Meadow Heights 5 16 20 9 -- 51

Valle Catholic 26 22 21 14 -- 83

MEADOW HEIGHTS (51) -- Jacob Hunt 20, Jacob Douglas 11, Lane Baremore 5, Spencer Bragg 4, Tyler Cook 4, Devin Wilfong 4, Brendan Welker 3. FG 17, FT 11-17, F 17 (3-pointers: Hunt 3, Douglas 2, Wilfong 1. Fouled out: Douglas, Cook.)

VALLE (83) -- Connor Basler 33, Andrew Basler 19, Tyler Uding 11, Daniel Bergthaldt 9, Coleman Keely 7, Carl Loida 2, Nicholas Oberle 2. FG 29, FT 15-22, F 15 (3-pointers: Connor Basler 7, Uding 2, Bergthaldt 1. Fouled out: none.)