Skilled, talented Advance drives past St. Vincent in home W

ADVANCE – The Advance High School boy’s basketball squad isn’t going to intimidate any opponent with their size, strength, or athleticism this season. The Hornets don’t have to, because as a unit, veteran coach Bubba Wheetley has constructed an experienced, mentally tough group of kids, who are really, really, really skilled and smart on the floor, and that has served just fine this winter.

The Hornets improved to 11-2 on Monday with a win over a looooong St. Vincent team, 71-58, in Advance.

“It’s experience,” Wheetley said of what has made this group special. “Last year, we didn’t do as much. This group has been playing since they were sophomores.”

That has shown on multiple occasions this season, including Monday.

St. Vincent (9-7) tried to utilize its length in seniors Dylan DeWilde, Simon Unterreiner, and Blake Monier, each of whom is every bit 6-foot-3 or taller, but the Hornets, who might have one player who is 6-foot-2 in Jack Bailey, but everyone else is smaller, spread the court and used their skills with the ball to eventually wear the Indians down.

“It was a good ball game until the last couple of minutes when they started to expand their lead,” veteran St. Vincent coach Bruce Valleroy said. “We kind of went cold there in the end, and they didn’t.”

The Hornets never really “went cold,” as they pushed the tempo offensively and spread the court.

With St. Vincent having to defend every inch of the half-court against good ballhandlers, it opened driving lanes for seniors Hayden Hitt, Braylen Carlton, Hayden Laird, and most certainly, Advance’s top player, Colton Silman.

“I’ve been trying to get them to drive and attack, and make things happen,” Wheetley explained, “because they can.”

The Advance players spread the court, moved the ball, found open cutters, and either scored on dump-offs or finished their own drives. When they weren’t scoring at the rim, Silman was scoring at all three levels.

The senior guard finished with 36 points, including six points in a dominating fourth quarter.

The Hornets led 49-43 early in the final period, but Hitt and Carlton, who may be the most athletic player on the Advance roster, but doesn’t even start, combined for 14 points in that period, as Advance outscored St. Vincent 22-15 to seal the win.

“They can all handle the ball,” Wheetley said of his players. “And they can finish at the rim. We knew going in that St. Vincent was long, but our kids attacked all night long.”

For a neutral observer, the game was awesome to watch.

Both teams were crisp and efficient offensively, as well as skilled. Advance connected on 52 percent of their shots, while St. Vincent wasn’t far behind at 47 percent.

Silman sank four 3-pointers on the night, and had 13 points in the opening quarter, while six Indian players produced offensively in the opening half and St. Vincent hit five 3-pointers as a team.

“We emphasize to look for the open man,” Valleroy said. “We talk about that you’re going to get your shots eventually, too.”

Hitt finished with 12 points, while Carlton added eight and Laird had 12, as well.

Unterreiner led the Indians with 19 points, while senior guard Payton Strattman and DeWilde both chipped in eight.

Monier had 16 points before exiting the game in the final minutes with a badly sprained right ankle.

Advance will visit Chaffee (6-7) today at 7:30 p.m., while St. Vincent has to travel to Oran (7-5) on Friday at 7:30 p.m.

“It won’t be easy,” Valleroy said of his next test. “It’s murderer’s row this week. Oran is very well coached and we know what we are going to get.”