St. Vincent's Max Wheeler hits game-winning layup vs. Chaffee to snap losing skid

CHAFFEE — Trailing by one point with four seconds left on the clock, St. Vincent needed someone to step up.

Typically, teams will look to a senior or a more experienced player to take the final shot. The Indians, however, turned to sophomore Max Wheeler.

Wheeler found an open lane on an inbounds play, caught the pass and seemingly effortlessly laid the ball in as the clock ran down to help St. Vincent snap a three-game losing streak with a 58-57 road win on Tuesday night against Chaffee.

"We were a little out of sync there and he made a smart move to cut to the wide-open basket," Indians coach Bruce Valleroy said. "Once he caught it — as long as he made the layup — we were in good shape because they were out of timeouts and everything."

Valleroy praised his sophomore's ability and work ethic as a basketball player.

"He's a very smart player and is a very dedicated basketball player," Valleroy said. "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."

Wheeler was the team's second-leading scorer against the Red Devils with 12 points — behind senior Jacob Schremp who had 15 — but none were bigger than the final two. Having such a young player with the ability to thrive under pressure can pay dividends for the Indians, who feel comfortable leaning on him in clutch moments.

"He's got to be one of our leaders, even as a sophomore," Valleroy said. "He's got to step up every night at both ends of the floor. With five seconds to go when the ball was out of bounds in the corner, we set up a play for him. We had two seniors but we felt like he was the one that could make something happen, and he's going to be the one in late-game situations we're looking at to step up and make some plays for us."

In addition to Wheeler being able to keep his cool in stressful situations, his ability to lead as an underclassman sets a good example for his younger peers.

"They've all been together for years," Valleroy said. "They play on teams together — you know, soccer, football, basketball, whatever. They've grown up together and they all live by each other. It's great for them to have a role model like that, someone who works hard and you can follow his lead."

With the Indians' (2-3) losing streak in the rear-view, St. Vincent looks to continue its winning ways with a 7:30 p.m. road matchup with Scott City on Friday.

"We've only been together for 11 days (due to St. Vincent's football team making the Class 1 semifinals) and I feel like we're getting better every day," Valleroy said. "This will help us tremendously with tomorrow's practice when we walk into the gym. We're going to see that attitude and that fire of 'Hey, we won last night, let's get better for next time, and let's get ready for Scott City on Friday."

__St. Vincent 58, Chaffee 57__

St. Vincent 11 13 16 18 — 58

Chaffee 17 12 15 13 — 57

ST. VINCENT (58) — Jacob Schremp 15, Max Wheeler 12, Payton Strattman 10, Quinton Doza 10, Colden Prost 6, Wyatt Winkler 3, Gavin Hotop 2. FG: 23, FT: 6-10, F: 14. (3-pointers: Strattman 2, Prost 2, Doza 1, Wheeler 1. Fouled out: none).

CHAFFEE (57) — Shelton Simmons 16, Blake Yarbro 16, Levi McKinnie 15, Connor Berry 5, Devin Best 4, Kade Atkins 1. FG: 26, FT: 1-9, F: 15. (3-pointers: McKinnie 3, Berry 1. Fouled out: Yarbro).