St. Mary's Ready for Rematch with Two-Time Defending Champ Vashon

Tony Irons went to the well this winter.

On Tuesday night he'll find out if it worked.

The Vashon boys basketball coach, Irons exhausted his substantial bag of coaching tricks to accelerate the growth of his young Wolverines.

The No. 1 small school in the STLhighschoolsports.com rankings, Vashon (21-5) has no seniors on its roster. It didn't return a single starter from its back-to-back Class 4 championship teams.

The Wolverines talent is not in question. With junior standout guard Mario McKinney Jr., sophomore swingman Cam'Ron Fletcher, junior guard Donyae McCaskill, sophomore guard Phil Russell, sophomore Kobe Clark and so many others, talent is not the question.

The question is, are the Wolverines hungry?

Everyone will know the answer when Vashon takes on No. 4 small school St. Mary's (26-3) in a Class 4 sectional at 8 p.m. Tuesday at Parkway West High.

Tickets will be on sale at the door starting at 5 p.m.

It's a rematch from last year's sectional when Vashon rallied late and escaped with a 72-68 victory in overtime. It was the tightest game the Wolverines played on their way to their second straight championship.

It's the game that fueled St. Mary's. Senior-laden and focused, the Dragons aren't hungry, they're ravenous. Vashon and St. Mary's have met the last three seasons and the Wolverines have come out victorious each time.

St. Mary's spent the better part of a year preparing to reach this point so it could take the next step. There's nothing a coach, even as one as decorated as Irons, can do to mimic how driven St. Mary's will be when the ball goes up.

“You can't simulate the desire they have to play us,” Irons said. “You try to get your kids to understand the magnitude of this game.”

Of St. Mary's nine seniors, center Yahuza Rasas and guard Tony Burks have been varsity staples since they were freshmen. Coach Bryan Turner said they were critical in spearheading the Dragons through a grueling offseason.

“It's been a commitment to the end goal,” Turner said. “They were there for camps, workouts, open gym. The leaders engaged and kept it together. We felt everyone had to be back on board.”

The Dragons returned nearly everyone from last season including standout point guard Yuri Collins. The only junior that starts and sees regular action, Collins can affect the game in so many ways. He scored a team-high 19 points in St. Mary's runaway win over Confluence in the district title game. He averages more than six assists per game and is a tough defender with quick hands that can start a fast break at any given moment.

He does for the Dragons what Daniel “Peanut” Farris did for Vashon during its two title runs. Farris was the heart and soul of those Wolverine teams before continuing his career at Central Missouri.

Irons sees a lot of his old point guard in the one he'll face Tuesday.

“He's someone that makes winning plays,” Irons said. “It's weird preparing for someone like that (after having Farris). You can take one thing away and he does something else. You definitely have to respect his game.”

Neither team will suffer from stage fright when they take the court. Both programs spent the winter in high profile games against top notch competition. Both dropped hard-fought matchups with Hazelwood Central. Both lost to Chaminade on a neutral court, but St. Mary's did bounce back and beat the Red Devils 88-46 at home on Feb. 6.

All the games, all the practices, all the extra hours spent in the gym were in preparation to win this matchup and march on. Last year Vashon won this game and went on to win state. It's not a reach to suggest these were the top two teams in Class 4 then. The same could be true now.

“We had it in our head that this could be the state championship game,” Turner said. “We have to prevail in what I'm calling the 'city championship.'”

St. Mary's didn't spend 365 days grinding to win the city championship. The Dragons are ring chasing. They've made one quarterfinal appearance and they've never played in a state semifinal. They want to change that. 

It's bigger than just beating Vashon.

“We took it hard last year after the loss. We learned from last year,” Rasas said. “Our goal the whole season is to win state and they're a team in the way.”- By David Kvidahl of the St. Louis Post Dispatch