St. Regis hoopers off to hot start
When both teams are rolling, that’s a good time to be a fan.
That being said, fans at St. Regis are always stoked about their basketball teams and this season, in what some thought might be a rebuilding process, both the Tigers and the Lady Tigers are off to good starts.
The boys boosted their record to 4-0 Saturday with a relatively easy 66-41 road win over Victor, a big change from a few weeks ago when the game went down to the wire and was decided by two points. That comes on the heels of a 65-35 blowout win over Valley Christian, also in St. Regis.
The Lady Tigers meanwhile rolled Victor 62-31 Saturday, a day after battling Valley Christian to the finish in a 56-50 victory, in St. Regis.
Those two wins lifted the Lady Tigers to 3-1 on the young season.
Against Victor, the Lady Tigers got 21 points each from senior Macy Hill and sophomore Avery Burnham in building an early lead and never trailing after the first quarter.
With Hill blazing away from outside and Burnham controlling the boards and inside points down low, St. Regis built an 18-7 first quarter lead. Burham scored eight points, mostly on put-back shots, during the second quarter allowing the Lady Tigers to take a 37-12 advantage by halftime.
Victor tried to fight back in the third quarter, but Hill answered every Lady Pirate run with timely two-pointers as she amassed eight points for the period.
St. Regis then outscored Victor 12-4 in the final quarter to seal the win and boost their season mark to 3-1.
Friday night in St. Regis, the Lady Tigers also got off to a quick lead, piling up a 20-4 advantage by the end of the first quarter on a night when Macy was pretty much unstoppable offensively.
However, unlike the win over Victor, Valley Christian rallied in the second quarter despite Macy’s offensive assault, outscoring St. Regis 17-5 cut the Lady Tigers’ lead to four, 25-21 at the half.
The third quarter was all Macy as the senior poured in 17 points to give the Lady Tigers a little breathing room lead-wise, 44-34. Valley Christian would not go away and actually outscored St. Regis 16-12 in the fourth, but the large early lead and Macy’s scoring was enough to weather the storm.
Macy finished with a game high 40 points.
The Tigers boys had a much easier time of things, beginning Friday night at home when they jumped all over Valley Christian on their way to a 35-18 halftime lead. The swarming Tigers’ defense continually disrupted VC’s offense and the Tigers rode the scoring of senior Caleb Ball (21 points) and junior forward John Pruitt (20) to build and expand their halftime advantage.
Saturday evening in Victor, St. Regis also got off to an early lead, holding a 13-6 advantage at the end of the first quarter.
By halftime the Tigers were up 27-17.
But Victor, who took the Tigers to the last minute a week ago, were not done. They outscored St. Regis 16-14 in the third quarter, but it was not enough to seriously jeopardize the early Tiger lead.
Then St. Regis erupted for 25 points in the fourth quarter while the young defense stifled Victor and held them to eight points.
Ball scored an unofficial 24 points on the night and got 12 from Pruitt during the win.
Both St. Regis teams now face a pair of tough road games this week.
Friday night they are in Superior in what promises to be an exciting girls match up, then they travel to the far end of Sanders County for a pair of games with Noxon.