St. Vincent, Perryville look to right themselves at Border War Shootout

The St. Vincent and Perryville boys basketball teams enter the Border War Shootout on Saturday, Dec. 16, at the Perry Park Center in Perryville, Mo., hoping that their games against Illinois opponents serve as another opportunity to figure themselves out.

St. Vincent are using the month of December to catchup to the rest of the field. A majority of their team played on the football team during the Indians’ run to the Class 1 semifinals.

While that was a magical accomplishment for the small school, the playoff run left the basketball team without enough players for a 3-on-3. Which is why head coach Bruce Valleroy said during the Rolla “Duke” Herbert Classic in Crystal City, “The word for us is patience.”

“We play a lot of young kids and only three with really any varsity experience,” Valleroy said after their 67-37 loss to Jefferson in the third place game on Dec. 1. “They got put into the fire right away with very little practice. However, there are no excuses. We knew what we were getting into that week and we got a lot of kids playing time.”

The Indians won their first game of the season, a 73-60 hurting on Herculaneum on Nov. 27. They won the second game of the season by beating Chaffee 58-57 on a buzzer beater by Max Wheeler on Dec. 12, snapping a three-game skid.

"He's a very smart player and is a very dedicated basketball player," Valleroy said of Wheeler. "He works hard by himself and does a lot of training. He is a basketball junkie, if you want to call him that because he's really worked hard to improve himself and he's still going to be a good player for us as we go along."

The Indians lost 85-68 to Scott City on Friday but between Jacob Schremp scoring 18 and Wheeler scoring 16 against the Rams, it seems that the gridiron guys are starting to find their sea legs, for lack of a better term. The Indians also have senior sharpshooter Payton Strattman providing support from the outside.

“He’s got the green light to shoot it, Valleroy said on Dec.1, “and if he doesn’t shoot it, he’s gonna hear from me about it.”

The Indians will take on Marissa/Coulterville on 11:30 a.m. on Friday, right after Perryville’s 10 a.m. game against New Athens to kick off the five-game event. Perryville is looking to stop a four-game losing streak.

The Pirates are a young team made up of sophomores and juniors. They are led by their sharpshooting junior Jake Cissell, who’s offensive approach is to let it fly from the arch and hope that’s enough for Perryville to win.

“You won't see me shoot a whole lot of layups or close shots,” Cissell said last month.

Last year, Illinois won three games against Missouri, with Ste. Genevieve and Valle Catholic prevailing for the Show Me State.