Injured, versatile star will impact St. Vincent's chance at Oran

There aren’t a lot of positive signs for the St. Vincent High School boy’s basketball squad as it climbs onto the bus on Friday and makes the trek south to Oran at 7:30 p.m.

The Indians (9-7) have lost three of their past four games, including a 71-58 defeat at Advance on Monday, a game in which senior standout Blake Monier couldn’t finish after injuring his right ankle.

And now, St. Vincent has to battle the Eagles (7-6), who have their own struggles to deal with but do have history on their side in this series.

“It won’t be easy,” veteran St. Vincent coach Bruce Valleroy said of Oran. “It’s murderer’s row this week. Oran is very well coached, and we know what we are going to get.”

Yes, Valleroy does.

The Eagles have lost four consecutive games, and five of their past six games, but have beaten the Indians 10 consecutive times dating back to January 13, 2011.

“We better be ready to play,” Valleroy said.

Whether Monier is or not, remains to be seen.

He left the Advance gymnasium in a wheelchair after helping his team with 16 points, and St. Vincent could certainly use the long, skilled player.

“Blake is a hard worker,” Valleroy said. “He does all of those little things for us.”

From an offensive perspective, the 6-foot-4 Monier can play all five positions on the court.

St. Vincent has him bring the ball up on the break, he has a mid-range game that is very old-school-like, and he has the length and athleticism to finish at the rim.

“We wanted him to be more versatile this year,” Valleroy said. “He worked hard in the off-season to be able to do that.”

As impressed with that end of the court as he is with Monier, Valleroy is even more pleased with his defensive work.

“We don’t keep a stat on (pass) deflections,” Valleroy said, “but he probably leads this area by far in deflections. He just gets those long arms out there.

“He is lean and all of a sudden, he is like ‘Stretch Armstrong.’”

And Monier isn’t alone in that regard.

St. Vincent rolls out a front line of Monier, and senior teammates Dylan DeWilde and Simon Unterreiner, the latter who scored a team-high 19 points against the Hornets. Each of those players is at least 6-foot-3, if not taller.

“(Monier) does a great job for us on defense and offensively,” Valleroy continued. “He is our go-to guy when we are looking for a basket, we turn to him.

“He does a great job for us.”