The 10-game winning streak for the St. James High boys’ basketball squad came to an end Friday, Feb. 20 with a 51-43 loss to the St. Clair Bulldogs at St. James.

It was St. James Senior Night.

The setback ended St. James’ regular-season with a 19-7 overall record. Union won the FRC championship with a perfect 7-0 record while St. James was 5-2, Hermann 5-2, Pacific 3-3, St. Clair 3-4, Owensville 2-4, Sullivan 1-5 and New Haven 0-7.

In St. James’ other game last week the Tigers defeated Hermann 55-41 on the road Tuesday, Feb. 17.

The St. James Tigers are off this week awaiting play in the Missouri Class 4 District 3 Tournament, to be held March 3-7 at Cuba High School. The District 3 seeding meeting was scheduled to be held Monday morning, Feb. 23. Other schools in District 3 include Cuba, Owensville, Salem, St. Clair and Sullivan.

Feb. 20 at St. James - St. Clair 51, STJ 43: The St. Clair Bulldogs roared from behind in the second half to hand St. James its first loss since Jan. 22.

St. James limited St. Clair to just seven points in each of the first two quarters, taking a 10-7 lead into the second period and a 22-14 advantage into halftime.

However, St. Clair’s offense warmed up after intermission. The Bulldogs outscored the Tigers 15-7 in the third period to tie the game 29-29 entering the fourth quarter. And a 22-point final period allowed St. Clair to complete the comeback.

St. James struggled offensively, hitting just three-of-17 three-point attempts and four-of-10 free throws.

Senior guard Tate Gruver had 13 points while senior guard Aiden Boone had 10 points, seven rebounds and six assists; senior guard Nick Gleason six rebounds and three steals, and senior forward JV Meurer five boards.

Three Bulldogs scored in double figures, with senior Landon Rulo getting 14 points and freshman Guage McCuskey and senior Nathan Short 12 each.

St. James won the junior varsity game 62-36.
The individual scoring (FG-FT-TP):

Varsity
St. James (19-7, 5-2): Boone 4-2-10, Gruver 5-1-13, Gleason 4-1-9, Smith 3-0-7, Meurer 2-0-4, Totals 18-4-43.
St. Clair (16-9, 3-4): McCuskey 3-4-12, Ingram 2-0-5, Short 5-0-12, Roemer 1-6-8, Rulo 5-1-14, Totals 16-11-51.
The score by periods:

St. Clair      7   7 15 22-51

St. James  10 12   7 14-43

Junior Varsity

St. James: Driskell 4-1-10, O. Spurgeon 4-1-10, Deluca 3-0-6, Jones 5-0-10, Huffman 4-0-8, Jenkins 3-0-6, Recker 2-0-4, Giacolone 4-0-8.

St. Clair: Voorhees 2-0-5, Neff 1-0-3, Leroney 2-7-11, McDaniel 1-0-3, Dowell 6-0-14.

Feb. 17 at Hermann - STJ 55, Hermann 41: Big starts to both the first and second halves allowed the Tigers to stop the Hermann Bearcats.

Powered by 11 points from Boone, St. James outscored Hermann 20-13 in the first quarter. Hermann responded by limiting STJ to just six points the rest of the half, cutting the St. James halftime lead to 26-24.

The Tigers fired out of the gate in the third period with another 20 points and took a 46-31 advantage into the fourth quarter. St. James got just nine points in the final period but that proved to be enough to hold on.

Boone scored 18 points while Gruver and Gleason each had 12.

The Tigers won the junior varsity game 55-24.

The individual scoring:

Varsity
St. James: Boone 6-3-18, Gruver 5-0-12, Gleason 4-3-12, Smith 1-2-4, Bell 0-1-1, Meurer 2-2-6, J. Spurgeon 1-0-2, Totals 19-11-55.

Hermann (16-10, 5-2): Lindahl 1-0-2, Eldringhoff 2-1-7, Hopkins 0-2-2, Stiers 4-0-9, Ash 2-0-5, Witthaus 2-2-7, Eikermann 2-0-4, Fredrick 1-2-5, Totals 14-7-41.

The score by periods:

St. James  20    6  20    9-55

Hermann  13  11     7 10-41