St. Regis Tigers look good heading into postseason

With the District playoffs looming in the near future, now is a good time to pick up a couple “tune-up” wins and get playing time for non-starters.

That’s exactly what coach Jesse Allan and the St. Regis Tigers were able to do this past week as they ran over Two Eagle River 78-54 at home Friday night, then traveled to Noxon and routed the Red Devils 73-40 Saturday night.

Along the way Allan’s young, talented group of reserves got some good varsity experience and one of the key players on the team got a few extra days to rest a case of tendinitis in his leg.

They even had a chance to pause and recognize a significant achievement from a scoring machine.

The Tigers began their final week of Western 14C basketball at against the Two Eagle River Eagles, a scrappy bunch who cannot be over-looked. St. Regis bolted out to a 25-15 first quarter lead thanks to big contributions from senior Tanner Day, who poured in 14 points, and junior guard Caleb Ball, who hit for six points.

During the first half, Ball would sink a jump shot that allowed him to reach a milestone in his young career as the deuce put him at 1,000 points for his time at St. Regis. And he still has some games left this year and a full year next season to make a run at the school’s career scoring record which currently stands at 1,429 points.

“I think as long as he stays healthy and we continue to have success he will break it sometime around mid season next year,” Allan said.

Ball added eight more points in the second quarter, then eight in the second half to close out his milestone night with a total of 22 points.

Meanwhile, Tanner had a field day under the basket on both ends of the court and wound up with a game-high 30 points, many of them off put-back baskets of missed shots by the Tigers.

Tanner, a senior, is within striking distance of hitting the 1,000 point mark this coming weekend in the team’s last two regular season games before District playoffs start February 17 in Ronan.

By halftime the Ball-Day combination had been instrumental in staking the Tigers to a 47-27 lead over the Eagles, who are now 1-10 on the season.

With Ball and Day getting some minutes off during the second half, sophomore guard John Pruitt guided the team of sophomores and freshmen to an increase in their halftime lead.

Pruitt scored seven points in the third quarter as St. Regis outscored the Pablo-based Eagles 16-10 to build an insurmountable 63-37 lead with one quarter to play. Pruitt joined Day and Ball in double figure scoring with 14 points.

As reserves occupied playing time, the Tigers were able to further rest senior forward Adam Pruitt, who has missed the last three games with tendinitis issues but is expected to be ready to go this weekend and be a factor in the upcoming District tournament.

Cal Burke led the Eagles with 19 points.

The win boosted St. Regis to 11-3 on the year overall and 9-0 in the 14C conference race, in which they have clinched the number one seed and first round bye in the District playoffs.

They further solidified that top standing the following night when they traveled to Noxon to face the one-win Red Devils.

With Adam Ball still resting his sore leg, brother Caleb got things going in a big way for the Tigers, dumping in 12 points during a first quarter scoring binge that propelled St. Regis to a 26-7 lead at the end of the period.

Day added eight points during the first quarter.

Ball then dropped in two long distance threes in the second quarter to go with four points from Day as St. Regis opened a 43-21 lead at the half.

Day added another five points in the third quarter and three other Tigers hit treys to boost the St. Regis lead to 59-25 with eight minutes to go in the game.

The two teams played even-Steven in the fourth quarter as St. Regis coasted to the win and wrapped up an unblemished 10-0 regular season. They are also now 12-3 on the year.

Noxon, meanwhile, dropped to 1-10 on the year.

The Tigers will close out the regular season this weekend with a home game this Thursday versus Valley Christian, followed by a road game the next night in Victor.

Noxon has just one regular season game remaining, a non-conference meeting with Troy in Troy tonight (Tuesday, Feb 8).