Perryville boys use their zone defense to knock off St. Vincent

Perryville boys basketball coach Joel Roth has approached the annual Mayor's Cup rivalry game against St. Vincent with the same strategy in each of his three seasons.

Roth has focused his team's defense on St. Vincent's inside players, making the Indians beat Perryville from the outside.

For the third straight year, Roth's strategy paid off, as Perryville upended St. Vincent 51-44 on Saturday at the Perry Park Center.

"It's just been a case the last three years in our strategy, we didn't think they had the outside shooter to beat us," Roth said.

Added St. Vincent coach Bruce Valleroy: "Until we can get them out of that zone, he'll continue to do that to us each year."

The Indians (8-8) actually finished with five 3-pointers, but three came in the final quarter when St. Vincent was scrambling to get back into the game.

"That's just not our game," Valleroy said of the 3-pointer.

While the Pirates' game plan involved stopping St. Vincent's inside game, St. Vincent's game plan involved stopping Perryville's leading scorer, Rick Dunn. The Indians' proved successful in their game plan as well, holding Dunn to zero points in the opening half and just eight points overall.

"I thought we did a good job on Dunn," Valleroy said. "Going in I thought we had to stop him to play with them."

What the Indians did not take into account was the hot shooting of Perryville center Tyler Bauwens. Bauwens scored 14 of Perryville's 18 first-half points, and finished with a game-high 23 points.

"Part of our strategy was to get the ball to him early and get some fouls on Waylon [Richardet]," Roth said. "We didn't get him [Richardet] in as much foul trouble as we wanted to, but, boy, Tyler made a lot of shots."

After keeping the score close in the opening half despite Bauwens' fast start, St. Vincent fell apart offensively in the third quarter.

Perryville's 18-15 halftime lead turned into a 28-15 lead with less than 2:30 left in the third. Greg Finger finally ended St. Vincent's scoring drought with a 3-pointer with 2:15 left in the quarter.

By the end of the third quarter Perryville (8-11) had built a 34-21 lead.

"We did not even get into our offense until the last 2 minutes of the quarter," Valleroy said. "We've been like that all year. We go in spurts where we don't put the ball in the basket."

Bauwens picked up his fourth foul late in the third quarter, but the Pirates were able to keep St. Vincent at bay until Bauwens returned midway through the fourth. Once Bauwens returned, he scored five straight points for the Pirates to keep Perryville ahead by double digits.

Thanks to four straight three-point possessions late in the quarter, St. Vincent was able to pull within four with 53.7 seconds remaining. But Perryville was able to knock down eight of its last nine free throws to pull out the win.

"We missed three in a row [to start the quarter] then hit five of our next six," Roth said. "They kept their composure."

Finger led St. Vincent with 14 points and Richardet had 10.

Perryville 51, St. Vincent 44

St. Vincent 9 6 6 23 -- 44

Perryville 12 6 16 17 -- 51

ST. VINCENT (44) -- Greg Finger 14, Waylon Richardet 10, Eric Clements 9, Jon Buehler 6, Chris Fischer 3, Mark Hotop 2. FG 13, FT 13-18, F 18 (3-pointers: Finger 3, Buehler 2. Fouled out: Buehler)

PERRYVILLE (51) -- Tyler Bauwens 23, Rick Dunn 8, Michael Fritsche 6, Ryan Schilling 6, Corey Lorenz 6, Jonathan Hecht 2. FG 18, FT 15-22, F 14 (3-pointers: none. Fouled out: Bauwens)

JV -- St. Vincent 28, Perryville 26