Collins and St. Mary's Capitalize Off Foul Trouble
Yuri Collins showed no mercy with the game on the line.
The St. Mary’s junior guard took advantage of McCluer North's foul trouble to lead the top-seeded Dragons to a 66-59 win over a gritty Stars team in the quarterfinals of the Coaches vs. Cancer Boys Basketball Holiday Tournament at St. Louis Community College - Meramec on Thursday night.
St. Mary’s (10-0), No. 1 in the STLhighschoolsports small school rankings, will play fourth-seeded and No. 10 large school Kirkwood in the semifinals on Friday night.
The turning point came when North guard Mekai Ray picked up his fourth foul with just over three minutes left in the third quarter. Ray went to the bench with the upset-minded Stars leading 43-35.
“Once he went out, they had no one else who wanted to bring the ball up the court,” Collins said.
It played into St. Mary’s hands as the Dragons’ pressure defense forced 21 total turnovers, including 14 in the second half. The turnovers created powered a 14-1 run sparked by a Miles Jones power drive and Antonio Burks trey to cut North’s lead to one with 56 seconds left in the third.
Lavelle Harris gave the Dragons the lead by stealing a North inbound pass and laying it in. Donavanne Austin followed with a 3-pointer as St. Mary’s extended its lead to 49-46 heading into the fourth quarter.
“At the end of the third quarter we started making that push,” St. Mary’s coach Bryan Turner said. “We got a couple of steals off our pressure and that gave us some easy baskets. Once we did that, the guys got some confidence and realized that defense was going to win it for us.”
Collins took over in the fourth, scoring nine of his 13 points. When he wasn’t finishing at the hoop, he was dishing to Yahuza Rasas and Harris for easy lay-ups.
“He made plays,” Turner said of Collins. “He’s the type of kid with a high basketball IQ and he gets us into a lot of great situations and it doesn’t always have to be scoring.”
North took a 17-14 lead at the end of the first quarter behind 14 combined points from A’Tavian Butler and Patrick Evans.
A Sylvon Mosley-Mull bucket extended the Stars’ lead to 26-19 midway through the second quarter.
Jones ignited a 6-0 St. Mary’s run with a dunk. Burks followed with a steal and a bucket to cut North’s lead to 26-25.
Rasas gave the Dragons a 29-28 lead with a reverse layup, but Aaron Daniels answered with a basket and two free throws to give North a 32-29 halftime lead.
After St. Mary’s evened the game at 35-35 early in the third quarter, North responded with an 8-0 run powered by its ball-hawking defense. Butler had a layup and Mosley-Mull had a put-back during the salvo as the Stars jumped to a 43-35 advantage.
“We always talk about our three P’s – poise, pride and pressure,” Collins said. “The 10-0 record is the pressure so we’ve got to play with poise and do what we do.”
Burks led St. Mary’s with 14 points. Rasas scored 12 and Jones added 11 points.
Butler scored a game-high 18 points for North (5-5), the tourney’s nine seed. Evans scored 10 points and Ray and Mosley-Mull each scored nine points.
“St. Mary’s, obviously defensively they pressure everybody,” North coach Trevor Laney said. “We had to be able to handle the ball. We had 21 turnovers.” - by Joe Harris of the St. Louis Post Dispatch