St. Regis' Tanner Day joins 1,000-point club

It tournament time. All the regular season games are over.

Now comes the big games, district, divisional and state.

For the St. Regis High boys basketball team, it is a chance to repeat their Western 14C tournament title from last year.

And if their final two games this past week are any indication, the Tigers will be a tough opponent for anyone.

St. Regis concluded their regular season with a 64-48 win Thursday over Valley Christian, then traveled to Victor to take on the Pirates, whom they were able to overcome and hold off in the final minutes, 39-34, to make it 2-0 for the weekend.

And in addition to maintaining momentum going into the playoffs, the Tigers were looking to celebrate the second 1,000-point career scoring mark in a week against Valley Christian.

And they were not disappointed on either front as senior forward Tanner Day, who earlier in the second half picked up his fourth foul just a few points away from the magic thousand-points mark, stepped to the foul line with 2:30 to go in the game and dropped both free throws.

The first one put him at the 1,000 point mark and the second topped it off. Day joined junior Caleb Ball in attaining the 1,000 points club with the charity toss. Ball passed 1,000 last week and with playoffs and one full year to go has a realistic shot at breaking the school scoring record of 1,429 points.

But that was then and Thursday night was a big win for the Tigers, who clinched a top seed and first round bye in this week’s Western 14C tournament last week, wrapping up a 10-0 conference season.

Still, the Tigers were intent on getting Day over the magic milestone and succeeded in doing so while at the same time keeping their winning ways alive with the victory.

St. Regis was in control from the start as Day and Ball led a potent offensive attack and were key components in the scrambling, in-your-face style of defense preached by head coach Jess Allan.

The Tigers jumped out to a 24-4 first quarter lead and were in front 32-19 at the half at Valley Christian kept it from being a runaway with key inside play.

In the third quarter, the two teams mostly traded basket for basket. But the main point of interest for the quarter was the fact Day was saddled and sidelined with his fourth foul with just under two minutes to play in the third frame.

The VC Eagles made several serious runs at the Tigers in the fourth quarter, but St. Regis was able to hold them off mostly because of the torrid outside shooting of Ball and sophomore guard John Pruitt, who was a dynamo on defense the whole game.

St. Regis rallied to outscore Valley Christian 22-17 in the fourth quarter as the Tigers jacked their season record to 13-3 with one game remaining.

That game was played Saturday night in Victor against an improving Pirates crew. In fact, Victor jumped ahead of the Tigers 13-9 after the first period when it seemed the St. Regis bunch was showing the effects of the long season.

Unable to get its vaunted offense in gear, the Tigers slipped behind 21-14 at the half and momentum appeared to be living in the Pirates huddle.

St. Regis came out in the third quarter with a renewed level of energy and behind some key three-pointers by Pruitt and inside/outside scoring by Day managed to tie the score at 23 with just over five minutes to go.

Aided by a high-arching three-pointer by freshman guard Kaleb Park and continued scoring by Day and Pruitt St. Regis was able to fashion a 36-29 lead with one quarter to play.

Neither team could do much scoring wise in the fourth quarter, during which the Tigers out-pointed their hosts 5-4, enough to hold onto their precarious lead and secure their 14th victory of the season.

The Tigers now take their 10-0 conference record to Ronan where they will await the winner of Thursday’s 3-seed versus 6-seed game. That next game would be played on Friday at the Ronan Events Center.

St. Regis won the 14C tournament title last year to advance to the state Divisional tourney.