De Smet Dominates Second Half in Sectional Win over Vianney

The first half of Wednesday night sectional game at the St. Louis Community College Meramec 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 half time 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 cruising to a 54-37 victory.  

In the first half, the Griffins’ 6-foot-10 junior center George Suggs kept Spartan players 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.

“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 time outs trying to change the momentum of the game,” Walsh added.

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

 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 Spartan head coach Kevin Poelker. 

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

“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, a field goal and two free throws. 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 Griffin 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.

NOTEBOOK:  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.

If the teams keep winning, the state finals could end up being a third meeting this season between cross-town rival Chaminade. The Red Devils (27-0) continued on an undefeated roll by winning 75-45 over Marquette Wednesday night.  The Red Devils take on McCluer North this Saturday.

Chaminade defeated the Spartans 69-51 at De Smet in December.  De Smet almost beat the Red Devils in a 69-66 January loss at Chaminade.  If both teams win their next two games in the playoffs they would face each other for the third time this season on March 12 for the state championship at the Mizzou Arena in Columbia.    

“We are only looking to our next game,” said Coach Poelker. “But we learned a lot from that last game against Chaminade,” he added.