Gritty St. Vincent boys defend home turf, down Valle Catholic in tourney rematch

Just six days removed from a previous matchup in their own tournament, the Valle Catholic Warriors boys basketball couldn’t keep the pace with St. Vincent as the Indians doubled down on home floor with a 67-57 victory to open up the new year.

Making good on a 3-point triumph last Thursday, St. Vincent dictated the fastbreak en route to a critical win against a tough Valle Catholic team in a battle of two teams that entered just under the .500 mark on the season.

“We feel very good,” Indians coach Bruce Valleroy said. “Last week was also a good game. I didn't think we shot the ball well last week, but tonight we shot the ball much better. We executed better on offense, and I thought our defense stepped up when they needed to.”

St. Vincent opened the game with an up-and-down first quarter, finishing with a 13-12 lead despite the Warriors putting the hurt on in the offensive rebounding game.

Despite Valle Catholic holding a big edge in second-chance opportunities, the Indians carried their lead into the second quarter and even added on as they forced the visitors into a plethora of turnovers in the transition offense.

Trailing by as much as seven points late in the second quarter, the Warriors fought back late to make it a 1-point game but entered the locker room in a 34-30 hole with two big and-1s late.

The fast legs of the Indians ensured that despite being undersized, they made life tough for the Warriors in the passing game. St. Vincent built up an early edge by hounding the visitors with a fastbreak onslaught.

“We're not very tall, as you can see,” Valleroy began. “We have Jacob Schremp, our big tall guy inside. Other than him, we’re a lot of guards, to be honest. So, you know, we're gonna have to press if we want to get it up and down the floor. That's the style we're going to play.

“Sometimes it's going to work, sometimes it's not going to work. But we started doing this from Day 1 and we're going to continue to keep growing and getting better at it.

“Kids love this kind of style. They want to get it up and down the floor, and we get everybody involved. That's what we're about.”

The turnovers continued to pile on as St. Vincent’s lead neared double digits midway through the third quarter, and that 4-point halftime gash grew deeper as Valle entered the final frame down by seven points.

St. Vincent didn’t need flash to pull out on top, grabbing a 67-57 win after hitting its free throws down the stretch and forcing a few big turnovers late to secure a much-needed victory against the scrappy Valle Catholic Warriors.

Jacob Schremp and Max Wheeler lit up the stat sheet for St. Vincent, dropping in 18 and 17 points respectively for a combined 35-point night. Payton Strattman (10) and Colden Prost (8) also chipped in for some big nights on the scoreboard.

Valle Catholic’s Tyler Gegg led the Warriors in scoring on Wednesday night, putting up 15 points in the loss while teammate Colin Henderson added another 13 right behind him.

The path has been fraught with difficulty for St. Vincent early, never managing to get a win streak larger than two so far this year.

With a lighter slate of games soon, facing a handful of teams that sit well below the .500 line in their respective 2023-24 campaigns, the Indians are entering a critical teambuilding portion of their schedule on a high note.

Now, St. Vincent has reached dead even at 6-6 and continues adding feathers to its hat as it rolls toward the postseason.

“We're taking it one game at a time – one day at a time,” Valleroy said. “We’ve only been together for a month because of the football season.

“We're very young, but we're growing every day. We're getting better. We're improving and we're expecting great things as we go along here.”

__ST. VINCENT 67, VALLE CATHOLIC 57__

Valle Catholic 12 18 14 13 — 57

St. Vincent 13 21 17 16 — 67

St. Vincent (67) — Jacob Schremp 18, Max Wheeler 17, Payton Strattman 10, Colden Prost 8, Case Huber 5, Parker Ellis 4, Andrew Schumer 2, Wyatt Winkler 2, Quinton Doza 1.

Valle Catholic (57) — Tyler Gegg 15, Colin Henderson 13, Andrew Basler 8, Zach Naeger 8, Wyatt Fallert 6, Josh Fallert 4, Kellen Tucker 3.