Going into St. Vincent’s home game against St. Pius X on Valentine’s Day, the Indians had won 19 straight games against conference opponents.
The Indian boys basketball team had won the Jefferson County Activities Association small-schools championship the previous three seasons. Jefferson won the conference in 2018. The Lancers’ last conference title was in 2017.
Senior guard Brendan Bishop didn’t start playing for St. Pius until the game against Grandview on Jan. 7. The Lancers were 6-6 at the time, but beat the Eagles that night and now have a record of 17-8. Bishop transferred from Windsor and wasn’t eligible to play for St. Pius until January. He made the game-winning 3-point basket against St. Vincent in Perryville on Monday (Feb. 14) as the Lancers beat the Indians 61-60 in double overtime before closing out the regular season with a 46-39 win at home against Gateway STEM on Wednesday night.
Sophomore Patrick Flanagan made the other 3-pointer in OT for St. Pius and finished with four treys and 19 points. Senior post Nate Ruble led the Lancers with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Ruble, who has signed to play football at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, also had five assists.
St. Pius enters the Class 3 District 4 tournament as the No. 2 seed and plays Gateway Science Charter at Bishop DuBourg on Monday at 11 a.m. in the first round. The host Cavaliers (11-9) are the No. 1 seed.