The red-hot St. James High boys’ basketball team ran its winning streak to seven by rolling to three victories last week.

In a girl/boy doubleheader Battle of the Cats event, the Tiger boys blasted the Licking Wildcats 64-28 Monday, Feb. 2 at St. James High. Also at home St. James hosted 15-win Newburg and posted a 80-60 victory. And the Tigers ended the week by returning to Four Rivers Conference play by winning at Pacific 65-49.

That left St. James with a 16-6 overall and 2-1 FRC mark.

This week St. James was scheduled to play two more league games, hosting Owensville Tuesday and traveling to Sullivan Friday, with the junior varsity game starting at 5:30 p.m. and the varsity contest following.

Feb. 6 at Pacific - STJ 65, Pacific 49: The Tigers struggled with the Pacific squad, which started four sophomores, for a half before pulling away in the final two quarters. The Indians took a 17-13 lead after the first period. The Tigers battled back and three-pointers by senior guard Nick Gleason and senior guard Tate Gruver late allowed St. James to grab a 29-28 edge at intermission.
Tiger sophomore guard Isaac Smith took over in the third quarter, scoring the first eight points in the period for STJ and finished with 12, allowing St. James to outscore Pacific 23-13 in the period and head into the final quarter up 52-41. The Indians were limited to eight points the rest of the way.
Smith scored a career-high 22 points with six assists and two steals to lead STJ while Gleason added 16 points and six rebounds and senior Gruver 14 points. Gruver passed Shane Parker for third place on the Tigers’ career scoring list.

Sophomore Cole Mohesky tallied 20 points for Pacific.

St. James won the junior varsity game 58-40.

The individual scoring (FG-FT-TP):

Varsity
St. James (16-6, 2-1): Boone 3-3-9, Gruver 5-1-14, Gleason 6-3-16, Smith 9-2-22, Meurer 2-0-4, Totals 25-9-65.
Pacific (7-11, 2-2): Mohesky 7-1-20, Bukowsky 3-1-8, Clark 6-2-15, Cozby 2-0-6, Totals 18-4-49.

The score by periods:

St. James 13 16 23 13-65

Pacific     17 11 13   8-49

Junior Varsity

St. James: Driskell 2-3-7, Ridenhour 4-1-10, O. Spurgeon 2-3-7, Jones 2-0-4, Huffman 5-6-17, Jenkins 1-1-3, Byfield 1-0-3, Recker 3-1-7.

Pacific: Vondera 2-0-6, Cozby 3-0-8, Trower 1-0-2, Kleine 1-1-3, Reincke 2-0-4, Hoffmeyer 2-1-6, Thompson 4-1-9, Blackburn 1-0-2.

Feb. 3 at St. James - STJ 80, Newburg 60: The trio of Gruver, Gleason and senior guard Aiden Boone combined to help the Tigers outscore the Newburg Wolves. With Gleason putting in nine points St. James got off to a fast start, outscoring Newburg 24-8 in the first period. The Tigers would keep control with a potent offense. Junior forward Jaxen Spurgeon netted seven points the rest of the half to help give STJ a 46-23 halftime cushion.

The Wolves continued to score well in the second half, but could not slow down St. James, who led 66-40 heading into the fourth quarter.

Smith dished out 13 assists to set a single-game school record. The old mark was 12 by Jake Harlan set in 2011.

Four Tigers scored in double figures, as Gruver finishing with 22 points, Gleason 19, Boone 16 and J. Spurgeon 11. Boone also had eight assists, six rebounds and two blocks; Gruver four steals, six boards and two blocks; Gleason four steals, and J. Spurgeon five rebounds.
Four Wolves also scored in double figures, as junior guard Jayce Dyer had 17 points, senior guard Aidyn Hutchins 16, senior forward Gage Holderby 13 and senior guard Kale Kridelbaugh 11.
St. James won the JV game 58-27.

The individual scoring:

Varsity
St. James: Boone 8-0-16, Gruver 10-0-22, Gleason 9-1-19, Smith 4-0-9, Meurer 1-1-3, J. Spurgeon 5-1-11, Totals 37-3-80.

Newburg (15-6): Dyer 6-3-17, Kridelbaugh 5-0-11, Holderby 5-1-13, West 1-0-3, Hutchins 6-0-16, Totals 23-4-60.

The score by periods:

Newburg    8 15 17 20-60

St. James  24 22 20 14-80

Junior Varsity

St. James: Driskell 2-3-7, Ridenhour 5-1-12, O. Spurgeon 2-0-4, Jones 5-0-11, Huffman 3-0-6, Jenkins 2-0-4, Byfield 2-0-5, Recker 2-0-4, Giacolone 2-0-5.

Newburg: Weible 4-0-8, E. Crews 1-0-2, Jones 1-0-3, West 1-0-3, M. Crews 2-0-4, Hull 0-3-3, Gresty 2-0-4.

Feb. 2 at St. James - STJ 64, Licking 28: St. James raced out to the lead in the opening period and never trailed. With five different players each scoring points the Tigers took a 12-2 lead with 3:32 left in the quarter and didn’t look back. Junior Owen Spurgeon ended the quarter with a driving layup off an assist by Gruver and STJ took a 21-9 lead into the second period. A 10-3 run to open the second quarter gave the home team its largest edge of the half, 19 points. It was 37-19 entering halftime.
The Tiger lead would grow to as much as 33 points in the third period and 37 points in the fourth quarter.

Gruver had 17 points and three steals; Gleason 15 points and four rebounds; Smith eight assists, and senior forward JV Meurer five boards to pace St. James.

St. James won the junior varsity game 61-29.

The individual scoring:

Varsity
St. James: Boone 4-0-8, Gruver 7-2-17, Gleason 6-3-15, Smith 2-0-5, Martin 1-0-2, Ridenhour 0-1-1, O. Spurgeon 1-1-3, Meurer 4-0-8, J. Spurgeon 1-2-5, Totals 26-9-64.

Licking (11-10): Walker 2-0-5, Sullins 2-1-6, Adey 4-1-9, Buckner 0-2-2, Ingram 2-2-6, Totals 10-6-28.

The score by periods:

Licking       9 10   3  6-28

St. James  21 16 18  9-64

Junior Varsity

St. James: Driskell 1-0-2, Ridenhour 4-0-8, O. Spurgeon 3-2-8, Deluca 1-0-2, Jones 5-0-11, Huffman 4-3-14, Brown 1-0-2, Recker 6-0-8, Giacolone 3-0-6.

Licking: Huff 2-0-5, Moberly 1-0-3, Bates 1-0-2, Stoops 2-2-7, Maxey 4-0-10, Beasley 1-0-2.