St. Vincent home finale ends in loss to streaking Saxony Lutheran

The Saxony Lutheran boys basketball team ended its regular season Wednesday night earning the team’s 12th victory in a row by downing the St. Vincent Indians 62-41 at St. Vincent High School.

The Crusaders, who haven’t lost since January 14, started the game against a high-powered St. Vincent team who defeated Saxony twice previously, taking the ball right at the Indian’s defense, capturing a quick 7-0 lead that the Crusaders never relinquished.

St. Vincent dwindled the Saxony Lutheran lead down to just two points by the end of the first quarter but that would be as close as the host team would get.

“We struggled tonight,” St. Vincent coach Bruce Valleroy said. “I have to give them all the credit. They executed their game plan and we were just pretty cold from the field tonight.”

Although the Crusaders only led 25-18 at halftime, Saxony Lutheran quickly increased its lead to 11 points with just under four minutes left in the third quarter off of a gorgeous drive to the basket from junior Jonathan Hartmann that gave the Crusaders their biggest lead of the game.

Saxony Lutheran retained that lead until the end of the period, taking a 43-32 lead into the final period.

St. Vincent cut the lead back to eight points just two minutes into the fourth quarter but a quick 4-0 run by the Crusaders gave the eventual winners a 12-point advantage with five minutes remaining. Saxony Lutheran once again extended that lead to 16 at the 2:54 mark and eventually closed out the game, winning by 21 markers.

“We’re playing really good team basketball,” Saxony Lutheran coach Justin Callahan said after the victory. “I guess our run started after we lost a couple of tough games in January when we played in the Chester Tournament. The loss to Waterloo Gibault really refocused our kids and from that point on we haven't lost.”

The Crusaders lost to St. Vincent twice earlier in the season, once by 13 points in the Rolla “Duke” Herbert Tournament at Crystal City on November 30 with the second time by just three points in the Valle Catholic Christmas Tournament on Dec. 27.

“Saxony Lutheran is rolling right now,” Valleroy said. “We beat them once without Luke Eggemeyer and then once when he was just returning from his foot injury. He makes that team go and gives them a very nice piece to play inside and outside.”

Senior Landon Ochs led the Crusaders in the scoring column with a game-high 17 points followed by fellow senior Aaron Zoellner’s 14 points, Eggemeyer’s 12 points, and Jonathan Hartmann adding 11.

St. Vincent was led offensively by senior Blake Monier who pumped in a team-high 12 points followed by senior Simon Unterreiner’s 11 markers and Jacob Schrempp who added eight points.

Saxony Lutheran wraps up its regular season with a 17-8 record and will now look to Class 3 District 2 play that starts on Tuesday as the Crusaders earned the three seed in the tournament. The district site is at Saxony Lutheran High School and coach Callahan hopes playing at home will give his team just a little bit of an advantage, “We have Scott City first on Tuesday,” Callahan said. “That can be a little scary because we beat them a couple of weeks ago and I expect them to make adjustments so we’re going to have to play our very best every night. Then there is Woodland in our same part of the bracket who has won 20 games and if we can get by the Cardinals ultimately I expect Charleston to be there in the finals and we all know how good they are.”

St. Vincent will travel to Meadow Heights tonight to wrap up the Indian’s regular season and will start their district play (Class 2, District 4 at Crystal City) as the second seed and will await the winner of the host Hornets and New Haven winner next Thursday.

“Even though we lost tonight I think we’re playing pretty well with the really good competition we’ve played here recently, “ Valleroy said about his team. “We had won three in a row before our loss tonight and we’ve played some really good teams lately and hung tough with all of them but we’re still confident as we head into districts next week.”