The St. James High boys’ basketball team opened the 2026 portion of its schedule in red-hot fashion, blasting the California Pintos 64-32 Friday, Jan. 2 in California.
St. James improved to 5-4 while California fell to 5-5.

Tate Gruver began 2026 with a bang for the Tigers. The senior guard came out firing, erupting for 15 points in the first quarter on his way to a career-high 26-point game. He canned 12-of-15 shots from the field. It was the 13th time in his career that Gruver scored 20 or more points, and Friday’s performance moved him into seventh place on the Tiger all-time career scoring list, passing Mike Crafton.

Behind Gruver St. James bolted to a 25-8 lead after the first period and was in control the rest of the way. Six different Tigers scored in the second quarter to allow STJ to take a 44-22 halftime advantage.

There would be no comeback, as the St. James defense smothered the Pintos for just 10 total points over the second half.

In all, the Tigers hounded the Pintos for 17 steals and hit 21-of-35 field goal attempts.
A whopping 11 players scored for St. James, led by Gruver. Also, senior guard Aiden Boone had seven rebounds and five assists; sophomore guard Isaac Smith eight points, five assists and five steals, and junior forward Jaxen Spurgeon eight points and five steals.

St. James won the junior varsity game 59-42, with freshman Easton Huffman netting 19 points and junior Westin Ridenhour 13. California took the freshman game 65-34. Jaden Otto had 12 points for the STJ freshmen.

This week St. James was scheduled to play at School of the Osage Tuesday, Jan. 6 and host Steelville Friday, Jan. 9 at the Tiger high school gym, with the freshman game to begin at 4:30 p.m. followed by the JV and varsity contests.

Jan. 2 at California

Varsity

STJ 64, California 32

The individual scoring (FG-FT-TP):

St. James (5-4): Boone 0-2-2, Gruver 12-0-26, Gleason 3-0-7, Smith 2-3-8, Bell 1-0-2, Martin 1-0-2, Ridenhour 1-0-2, O. Spurgeon 1-1-3, Meurer 1-0-2, J. Spurgeon 2-4-8, Perkins 1-0-2, Totals 25-10-64.
California (5-5): Oliver 2-0-4, Pace 3-0-7, Rutledge 1-1-4, Hall 1-0-2, Fitzwater 1-0-2, Hays 1-1-3, Porter 2-4-8, Kusgen 1-0-2, Totals 12-6-32.

The score by periods:

St. James   25 19 12  8-64

California    8 14    6 4-32

Junior Varsity

STJ 59, California 42

St. James: Driskell 3-2-8, Ridenhour 6-1-13, O. Spurgeon 2-0-4, Jones 1-0-2, Huffman 8-2-19, Jenkins 1-0-2, Recker 3-1-9, Giacolone 1-0-2.

California: Roberts 0-2-2, Abernathy 2-0-5, Hill 3-0-7, Cain 1-0-2, Hall 9-2-20, Howard 0-2-2, Kruger 2-0-4.

Freshmen
California 65, STJ 34

St. James: Otto 4-3-12, Engelbrecht 4-1-9, Hodge 0-1-1, Siders 2-0-4, Pruitt 4-0-8.

California: Kruger 8-3-20, Peterson 7-0-15, Bestgen 1-0-2, Schreck 2-0-4, Heimericks 2-0-4, Brockes 2-1-5, James 6-0-13, Miller 1-0-2.