St. Regis defense smothers opponents at Cascade Tip Off

When the phrase “defense wins championships” is uttered, it is most often linked with football or baseball and good defense via good pitching.

In St. Regis, defense is front and center for coach Jesse Allen and crew. 

And it doesn’t hurt if you also have some “lights out” shooters. 

Defense was on full display this weekend for the St. Regis boys’ and girls' teams in the Cascade Tip-off tournament. 

The boys, with their smothering, up-tempo form of defense, beat Cascade 45-42, then swamped Simms 59-34. And the Lady Tigers used their form of defense to overcome Simms 31-27 after they fell to Cascade by a 51-43 count. 

Friday the boys took on host Cascade in what became a defensive showcase from the start.  After one quarter of play the Badgers held a 7-6 lead.  Both teams then “exploded” for points in the second quarter, with St. Regis outscoring Cascade 15-14 on their way to a 21-21 halftime tie. 

Sophomore Conner Lulis was the top scorer for St. Regis in the first quarter with four points, indicating Cascade was also playing tight defense. 

The Badgers took the lead by the end of the third quarter when they outscored the Tigers 10-7, giving them a 31-28 advantage heading into the fourth quarter. 

Then, with the St. Regis defense continuing to swarm and befuddle the Cascade offense, Lulis threw in 11 points, helping the Tigers erase the Cascade lead on their way to a three-point margin of victory, 45-42.  Along the way, St. Regis limited Cascade to two points over the final two minutes of play. 

Defense in basketball can also win championships. 

Lulis led the St. Regis offense with 21 points, while junior forward Barrett Bessette added nine and Hunter Stollar chipped in eight in the Tigers’ win. 

Defense was again on display for the boys in their Saturday game against Simms.  The Tigers held Simms to six first quarter points on their way to a 16-6 lead after one quarter of play.  Each team then scored 11 points in the second quarter, producing a 27-17 halftime lead for St. Regis. 

St. Regis limited Simms to seven third quarter points while scoring 20 of their own, including eight by Lulis.  Heading into the final eight minutes of play, St. Regis held a 47-24 advantage.  They added two points to that lead in the fourth quarter to run their season record to 3-0 with the 59-34 win. 

Against Simms, Lulis topped the Tigers with 16 points, while Nathan Bohn had nine and Kaden Sanders added eight for the victors. 

The Lady Tigers also had an interesting, if not nerve-wracking defensive display, in particular their game against Simms. 

St. Regis broke out to a 13-4 lead after the first quarter in the girls matchup, then held Simms to five points in the second quarter while establishing a 25-9 halftime lead. 

The defense continued to shine in the third quarter, as St. Regis limited Simms to two points, while scoring just six of their own.  At the end of the third quarter, St. Regis was on top, 31-11 and appeared to be on their way to a solid victory. 

Then the defense took over.  Only this defense belonged to Simms, who pitched a shutout against St. Regis in the fourth quarter while dropping in 16 points of their own to cut the lead to 31-27. 

But the St. Regis defense, which had been back on their heels most of the fourth quarter, had just enough energy to halt the Simms rally in the final 90 seconds of play and escape with a four-point victory. 

In their game against Cascade, St. Regis ran into a tight defense utilized by the Lady Badgers, who held the Lady Tigers to two first-quarter points as they ran up a 13-2 lead. 

St. Regis got things going in the second quarter, outscoring Cascade 13-9 to cut the halftime lead to 22-15.   

The Lady Tigers outscored Cascade 15-10 in the third quarter, reducing the Lady Badgers’ lead to 34-30. 

But Cascade put up 17 points in the final quarter to slowly pull away for the 51-43 victory, leaving St. Regis with a 1-1 record for the two-game round robin tourney. 

The St. Regis teams travel to Troy for a pair of games this Friday (Dec 20) in their last games before the Christmas break.