One of the best seasons for the St. James High boys’ basketball squad came to an end Tuesday, March 10, as the Tigers fell to Clayton 75-61 in the Missouri Class 4 Sectional playoffs at Rockwood Summit High School in Fenton.

Clayton (23-7) went on to crush Dexter 77-54 Saturday, March 14 in quarterfinal action to advance to the Boys Class 4 Final Four, to be held March 20-21 at the Mizzou Arena in Columbia. Clayton was to face Benton (29-1) at 10 a.m. in the semifinals March 20.

St. James finishes the season with a 21-8 overall record. The Tigers was also 5-2 in the Four Rivers Conference.

Class 4 Sectional, March 10 - Clayton 75, STJ 61: Powered by career scoring leader senior guard Tate Gruver, the Tigers got off to a good start. Gruver netted 10 points - including a pair of three-pointers - to give St. James a 16-13 lead after the first quarter.

However, the rest of the game the Clayton Greyhounds - aided by severe STJ foul problems - cracked the Tiger defensive scheme that had been so successful during their late-season run.

Clayton would score 20 or more points in each of the final three quarters to eventually pull away from the scrappy Tigers.

Junior Sabastian Bolden had eight points in the second period to help the Greyhounds take a 33-27 edge into halftime, as St. James foul problems began to mount.

After St. James closed its deficit to one, Clayton nailed three 3-pointers in the third period as it outscored STJ 21-15 in the quarter to increase its advantage to 54-42 heading into the final period.
The Tigers put together a strong offensive fourth quarter, with Gruver firing in 10 more points. However, the Greyhounds kept control by scoring 21 of their own.

“I thought the first quarter defensively we were doing exactly what we wanted to do,” said St. James head coach Ben Smith. “But we got in serious foul trouble, which made it difficult to do what we wanted to do.”

Gruver ended his Tiger career with a career-high 30 points - including six 3s -  while sophomore guard Isaac Smith added 11 points, four steals and six assists and senior guards Aiden Boone and Nick Gleason 10 points each. Gleason grabbed nine boards.

St. James committed 17 turnovers and 23 fouls, with three starters (Boone, Gleason, senior forward JV Meurer) fouling out.

Bolden led Clayton with 26 points while junior De’marion Verges had 13, junior Jayden Garth 12 and junior Frederick Kuhlmann 10.

The individual scoring (FG-FT-TP):

St. James (21-8): Boone 2-6-10, Gruver 8-8-30, Gleason 4-2-10, Smith 5-1-11, Totals 61.

Clayton (23-7): Freson 2-0-5, Verges 5-2-13, Bolden 8-9-26, Hurst 2-0-4, Kuhlmann 4-0-10, Espe 2-1-5, Garth 5-1-12, Totals 28-13-75.

The score by periods:

Clayton    13 20 21 21-75

St. James 16 11 15 19-61