STEELVILLE – Steelville High School boys’ basketball team won the Gasconade Valley Conference (GVC) after a victory in overtime over Belle on Feb. 10 and a convincing win over Bourbon on Feb. 13.

The Cardinals finished the year 4-0 in the conference. Steelville fell to Salem on Feb. 12 in a physical matchup in between its victories and is now 11-12 on the year heading into its final game. All of Steelville’s games are detailed below.

Steelville celebrated senior night in between the JV and varsity game versus Belle and seniors Blaze Alexander, Malakai Bruno, Nate Gambill. Trentin Garrison, Landon Rutledge, Hunter Starbeck and Jackson Woods were recognized along with their families.     

The Cardinals will wrap up their regular season on Feb. 18 with a home game against Pacific.

Steelville will then begin district play on Feb. 24 in Laquey. The Cardinals are seeded fourth and will play fifth-seeded Laquey in the first round. The winner of that matchup will play number-one seed Dixon on Feb. 26 in the semifinals. Belle is the number two seed and will play seventh-seeded Bourbon in the first round. Number-three seed Fatima will play sixth-seeded Iberia on the other side of the bracket.

JV Cards at Bourbon tournament

Steelville’s junior varsity team played a grueling schedule of seven games in six days from Feb. 9 to Feb. 14. The Cardinals defeated Viburnum, Belle and Bourbon and fell to Salem. Steelville competed in the Bourbon junior varsity tournament on Feb. 11 and Feb. 14. The Cardinals beat Owensville on Feb. 11 and lost a rematch to Salem on Feb. 14 in the tournament semi-finals to send them to the third-place game against Vienna.

Steelville led by 12 at halftime, but Vienna fought back and made it a nail-biter. The Cardinals trailed by one with 20 seconds left when freshman Ripken Halbert found fellow freshman Lane West in the corner, who drained a three-pointer to give Steelville a two-point lead. Steelville looked like they had a final stop, but Vienna coach Tim Simmons called a timeout after a busted play with 0.9 seconds remaining. Simmons then drew up the perfect play and sophomore Talan Reeves drained a buzzer-beating three-pointer to crush the Cardinals. Steelville took fourth place with the loss to Vienna. Salem won the tournament and Belle took second place.

Feb. 10 vs. Belle

Emotions were high in Steelville on senior night for their matchup with its GVC rival Belle Tigers, who boasted a 20-3 record entering the game. The winner of the matchup essentially would be the winner of the GVC, and the intensity of the game reflected the implications of the conference title.

Both teams exchanged baskets in the first quarter and Belle took a 12-11 lead at the end of the frame. The Cardinals used tenacious pressure defense and timely buckets to propel its way to a 20-7 advantage in the second quarter, turning its one-point deficit into a 12-point lead at halftime. The Tigers fought back in the third quarter, but Steelville was able to do enough to hold onto a 46-38 lead heading into the final frame.

The fourth quarter resembled a heavyweight fight, as both teams repeatedly exchanged haymakers, and fans of both teams erupted after each basket was made. Belle scored the first six points of the quarter, and the game remained within three points for the rest of regulation.

The final minute of the final frame felt like an eternity, as each team traded buckets, and timeouts seemed to be called after almost every possession.

With the game tied at 52 with 1:08 left, Trentin Garrison knocked down one of two free throws, Steelville got a stop on defense, and Jackson Woods made a layup at the other end to give the Cardinals a 55-52 lead with 53 seconds left. The Tigers quickly regrouped, and found sophomore Brayden Gipson for an open layup to trim Steelville’s lead to one. Woods was then fouled and drained one of two from the line to make it a two-point game again. Belle senior Garrett Gehlert responded with a tough basket at the other end to tie the game at 56 with less than 20 seconds remaining.

On the other end, Garrison attacked the rim and finished a layup to give the Cardinals a two-point advantage with 14 seconds left. After a timeout, Gehlert showed nerves of steel and finished another difficult basket in the paint to tie the game at 58 with four seconds left. Steelville wasn’t able to get a final shot off, and the game went into overtime as hearts continued to race on the court and in the stands.

The Cardinals scored the first five points in overtime, and looked like they were going to pull away. But the feisty Tigers kept punching back and senior Hank Stratman knocked down a three-pointer to cut Steelville’s lead down to two with 23 seconds left. Cardinal senior Nate Gambill was then fouled, and buried both free throws to give Steelville a four-point lead. The magic from Belle then dried up, as the Tigers missed an open layup and were unable to score again, and Steelville was able to escape with a 69-64 statement victory that left the home crowd screeching for joy and the opposing crowd groaning with frustration.

Steelville head coach Josh Pritchett spoke afterward about how his team was able to ride the highs of senior night en route to victory.

“I think that our guys really wanted this one,” Pritchett said. “Obviously you want to win every one, but with it being senior night, and these guys just getting to play together for the last six years, they wanted to come out and just prove that they had this win in them. So they just came out and worked hard, dictated the game, did everything we needed to do to win.”

Pritchett also talked about how he was able to keep his team poised, despite Belle’s furious comeback in regulation.

“They’re a really good team,” Pritchett said about Belle. “We talked about it at halftime. They’re gonna make runs. Basketball is a game of runs. We kind of shot ourselves in the foot a little bit, taking bad shots in the third quarter, kind of letting them back into it. Then we kind of settled down, played better in the fourth and it really came down to just taking good shots, forcing them to kind of come out and guard us, and then not allowing them to just do whatever they wanted to on offense. They got downhill way too much in that third quarter, and that just hurt us and allowed them to come back.”

The win for Steelville presumably helped the Cardinals with seeding for districts, which were announced on Friday, three days after the victory. Pritchett spoke about the implications of the win for his team’s seeding in postseason play, and added that work still needed to be done.

“It’s a huge win with them being in our district. I think it’ll help our seating. Whatever that may be, it doesn’t really matter too much, but we just got to continue to play like we did tonight. We got another tough game with Salem on Thursday, and that’s one that we need to win as well in order to get a better seeding for districts.”

Steelville’s seniors stepped up on the night that they were honored, and five reached double figure scoring totals. Malakai Bruno netted 15, Woods scored 13, Gambill tallied 12 off the bench, Garrison chipped in 11 and Hunter Starbeck scored 10 while battling with Belle’s bigs for rebounds throughout the night. Fellow senior Landon Rutledge added five points and junior Will Bailey hit a free throw to finish with one point.

Belle was also powered by a balanced attack and received double-digit scoring efforts from four players. Stratman netted 17, Kooper Elrod scored 14, Kelhen Struemph added 13 and Gehlert chipped in 12, including his pair of clutch baskets at the end of regulation.

Steelville’s junior varsity team picked up a 53-44 win over Belle in the first matchup of the evening between the Cardinals and Tigers. Lane West scored 20 and Trey Gambill added 13 to lead the Cardinals.

Feb. 12 vs. Salem

The Cardinals played the Salem Tigers in the nightcap between the two schools in front of a packed crowd and a live YouTube broadcast of the game. Steelville’s junior varsity team fell 69-40 earlier in the evening.

Steelville came out strong and began the game on a 8-1 run before leading 14-5 midway through the first frame. Salem regrouped after a timeout and hit multiple three-pointers, including one where they got fouled on. Salem used its sharpshooting to take a 21-20 lead at the end of the first frame.

The offensive firepower continued for both teams in the second period, but the Cardinals were unable to slow down Salem’s potent attack, as the Tigers scored 25 in the frame and led 46-38 heading into halftime. The third quarter was essentially even, but the game started to slow down as the referees turned a physical matchup into a foul fest.

Salem led by nine going into the final frame and Steelville didn’t go down without a fight. Steelville fought back in the fourth quarter, but every time the Cardinals would get within striking distance, Salem senior Braiden Gapsch seemed to have an answer. The foul fest would continue to slow the game down as Steelville finished with 35 attempts from the charity stripe and Salem took 28. Steelville’s sharp shooting from the line in the first half dissipated in the second half and Salem was able to pull away with a 74-66 victory over the Cardinals. The Cardinals shot 23-for-35 from the free throw line and Salem drained 23 of 28 attempts.

Hunter Starbeck scored 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds to lead the Cardinals. Malakai Bruno also netted 15 points, and scored the majority of his baskets on strong takes to the rim. Landon Rutledge added nine, Trentin Garrison scored seven, Jackson Woods chipped in six, Nate Gambill and Chace Grayson each scored five and Will Bailey added three to round out the Cardinal’s scorers. Gapsch poured in a game-high 33 points to lead the Tigers.

Feb. 13 vs. Bourbon

After an exhausting night of hoops the night before, Steelville showed no ill effects against GVC opponent Bourbon. The Cardinals scored the first 15 points of the game and never looked back. Steelville ballooned its lead to 34 at halftime and Pritchett pulled his starters midway through the third quarter and gave a handful of junior varsity players their first varsity experience in the final frame. Steelville walked away with a stressless 75-31 victory to take the GVC crown.

A season-high 11 Cardinals scored baskets on the evening, led by Jackson Woods, who netted a game-high 19 points. Malakai Bruno, Trentin Garrison and Blaze Alexander each scored eight, Nate Gambill and Chace Grayson added seven, Hunter Starbeck, Landon Rutledge and Will Bailey scored four and freshmen Andy Riley and Lane West scored three points apiece. Dawson King scored 10 to lead Bourbon.