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Sports

Vianney Goes Cold in Season-Ending Loss to De Smet

Vianney led at halftime, but falls to De Smet, 54-37,

The first half of Wednesday night’s Class 5 boys sectional game at the Meramec Community College campus between and saw most of the scoring coming from the outside. Vianney hit on five 3-point shots and the Spartans made four.

At halftime the score was 27-26 in favor of the Griffins. That all changed in the second half as De Smet outscored Vianney 27-10 and only allowed two field goals in cruising to a 54-37 victory.  

In the first half, Vianney 6-foot-10 junior center George Suggs kept De Smet from getting inside while 6-foot-8 sophomore Nolan Berry and 6-foot-5 senior forward Teddy Corwin did likewise for De Smet.

In the second half, it was a slightly different story. De Smet found the basket with inside shots. Vianney was still kept out of the paint, but suddenly the team's long-range game vanished. In the first half, the Griffins were 5-of-8 from beyond the 3-point stripe. In the second half, they were 0-for-5.

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“This is our style. Outside scoring and then going in. I’m not making excuses. They made adjustments to what we were doing,” said Vianney coach Kevin Walsh.

“You can’t score 10 points in a half in a sectional playoff game and have a chance to win. I couldn’t burn enough timeouts trying to change the momentum of the game.”

Walsh had an added burden when he lost starter Richard Dorhauer with a torn ACL knee injury in Saturday’s 48-43 win over Oakville.

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The Spartans had an even closer win on Saturday, beating Hazelwood West 70-66. Against Vianney, Berry and Corwin each had nine rebounds and three blocked shots. Berry added a steal and an assist.

“For a big guy and just a sophomore Nolan’s skill sets are great. He can pass the ball anywhere on court,” said De Smet head coach Kevin Poelker. 

Berry scored a game-high 15 points. Corwin added 12 points on second half backdoor plays and short turnaround jump shots. Sophomore guard Jimmy Barton had nine points while senior guard Chris Jacobs scored 11 points while going 4-for-7 with four rebounds and two steals. 

“It was about making adjustments,” said Poelker.  We played our game in the second half.  Jimmy Barton picked things up for us. They had no easy looks in the second half,” Poelker said referring to every Vianney player having a Spartan in their face.

“With Richard Dorhauer out, Tony Cochran was forced into a role that he didn’t do all year. That helped us too,” said Poelker.

Cochran, a 5-foot-10 junior guard, finished with 12 points. In the second half, he led the Griffins in scoring with four points. He was forced to put up long-range shots to try and get Vianney back in the game but they didn’t fall.

Suggs also had 12 points, including two 3-point shots, but he was held to only two free throws in the second half. When Griffins guard Brad Woodson fouled out with 2:15 on the clock, Vianney began to empty the bench so the entire 11-man squad could get some court time.

Vianney ends the season with a 17-12 record. De Smet improved to 23-5 and moves on to play Troy-Buchanan on Saturday at the University of Missouri St. Louis at 6 p.m.

NOTES: NBA Hall of Famer and St. Louis University standout Easy Ed Macauley was at the game. Macauley, the grandfather of Nolan Berry has been in attendance for most of the De Smet games this season.

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