St. Mary's returns home, earns revenge with runaway victory against Chaminade
Yahuza Rasas wasn't surprised. A 6-foot-7 senior center for the St. Mary's basketball team, Rasas acted like it business as usual.
Business was good Tuesday night.
Better than its been in a long time for the Dragons.
St. Mary's ran Chaminade out of the gym with an 88-46 romp in a nonconference matchup at St. Mary's. The No. 4 small school in the STLhighscholsports.com rankings, St. Mary's (20-3) beat Chaminade for the first time since at least 1999.
These two met in the semifinals of the Belleville East Classic on Jan. 19 and Chaminade rolled to a 97-77 victory. Before that their last meeting came in February of 2006, when Chaminade won 50-16.
The loss in Belleville did not sit well with this version of the Dragons. Not that night or any night since.
“They beat us by 20. We were coming back with revenge,” St. Mary's senior guard Tony Burks said. “We couldn't come in here and take a loss on our home court. We had extra energy. We came out and pushed it to them.”
This home game would have meant more no matter the opponent. St. Mary's beat Borgia on Dec. 15 the last time it played at home, a span of 52 days. That it was Chaminade on the docket only made it better.
“We came out with a chip on our shoulder,” junior point guard Yuri Collins said. “We'd been waiting on this since that day. This game came and we knew it was ours.”
Collins was electric on both ends. He scored a game-high 28 points and came up with six steals. Known for his adept passing and vision, Collins spent much of the game breaking off multiple defenders and finishing at the rim. Collins will be the first one to lay the ball off to a teammate, but the high-quality looks just kept coming.
“Last game I watched film and I had a couple of turnovers. I wasn’t picking my head up as much,” Collins said. “I was getting right past them, feeding my teammates the ball and when I had a chance getting easy buckets.”
The No. 2 large school, Chaminade (16-4) got on the board first when senior swingman Jericole Hellems stole the ball after the tip and raced the other way for a dunk 12 seconds in. It was the only time the Red Devils led.
Collins buried a 3-pointer on the next possession and St. Mary's buried Chaminade in an avalanche of layups.
Layups off turnovers. Layups off defensive rebounds. One after another until they led 21-8 at the end of the first quarter.
The lead grew to 37-10 when Chaminade coach Frank Bennett emptied his bench with 5 minutes and 45 seconds to play in the second quarter.
“We were getting no effort, we trying to find guys that would give effort,” Bennett said.
A minute later he reinserted his starters but the damage was done. St. Mary's led 54-24 at halftime.
Burks scored 22 points. He was strong defensively as he took on the challenge of guarding Hellems much of the game.
“Tony has done a lot for us. He's taken the challenge of guarding the other team's best player. He said 'Let me get him,'” St. Mary's coach Bryan Turner said. “He accepted the challenge and that kid made plays early. He got going.”
Collectively the Dragons' helter-skelter defense gave the Red Devils fits. It sped up Chaminade and gave the running Red Devils a taste of what they so often do, and do well, to overwhelmed opponents.
“It wasn't good,” Bennett said. “When you don't match their intensity and dig a hole early, it's a credit to them. They came out ready to play, we came out flat and that's what happens.”
Hellems led Chaminade with 16 points and six rebounds. Sophomore guard Harrison Vickers had nine points. Senior guard Jadis White and junior guard Keyyaun Batchman had seven points apiece.
St. Mary's has been on a roll since it lost to Chaminade at Belleville East. Senior guard Miles Jones returned to the lineup after missing time with an injury. The Dragons won at St. Louis U. High, Quincy Notre Dame and at Charleston. All the road games and several trips out of town have brought this senior-laden lineup closer.
“We're just learning how to work better as a team,” Rasas said. “This is not a surprise. This is what we do.”
Added Burks, “Districts are coming up and we're just trying to get ready. We're trying to be ready to play any team that comes in here and take it to them." - David Kvidahl By David Kvidahl of the St. Louis Post Dispatch