The St. James boys’ basketball squad stretched its winning streak to nine with a pair of Four Rivers Conference victories last week.

The Tigers whipped Owensville 58-37 at home Tuesday, Feb. 10 then traveled to Sullivan and got past the Eagles 55-45 Friday, Feb. 13.

That improved the Tigers’ overall record to 18-6 and kept their hopes for a FRC title alive with a 4-1 mark.

Entering this week Union led the Four Rivers Conference standings with a 5-0 mark with two league games remaining, at St. Clair Tuesday and at home against Owensville Friday. St. James and Hermann were second in the FRC standings entering this week with 4-1 records. Owensville and St. Clair were 2-2, Pacific 1-3 and New Haven and Sullivan 0-4.

St. James is to end the regular season with a pair of conference games this week, playing at Hermann Tuesday and hosting St. Clair Friday, with the junior varsity game starting at 5:30 p.m. and the varsity contest to follow.

The Tigers are to begin their postseason run with the Class 4 District 3 Tournament March 3-7 at Cuba.

Feb. 13 at Sullivan - STJ 55, Sullivan 45: Despite struggling somewhat in the Sullivan Eagles’ Homecoming Game, the Tigers stayed in the league title chase with a win.
Sullivan stayed with St. James throughout. The Tigers pulled out a 14-11 lead after the first period. Senior guard Tate Gruver netted seven points in the second quarter, as St. James outscored the Eagles 12-11 to take a 26-22 edge into intermission.

Each team scored 16 points in the third period - with senior guard Aiden Boone putting in 10 points in the quarter for STJ. After Sullivan tied the game with two minutes left in the fourth quarter, the Tigers finally got some breathing room by hitting seven-of-eight free throw attempts. Sophomore guard Isaac Smith went four-for-four at the free throw line late.

Boone and Gruver each had 19 points to pace St. James. Smith tied the Tiger single-game school record for steals with 10, to go with nine assists. The 10 steals tied the school mark that Gruver had set against New Haven during the 2023-24 season and his brother, Peyton Gruver, had the year before that.

Also for STJ, Gruver grabbed seven rebounds and senior forward JV Meurer and Boone six each, while Meurer also made four steals.

Senior Mitchell Garner led Sullivan with 17 points.

St. James won the junior varsity game 43-29.

The individual scoring (FG-FT-TP):

Varsity
St. James (18-6, 4-1): Boone 7-3-19, Gruver 6-5-19, Smith 2-4-9, O. Spurgeon 2-0-4, Meurer 1-0-2, J. Spurgeon 1-0-2, Totals 19-12-55.

Sullivan (6-15, 0-4): Blankenship 3-1-9, Thomure 1-2-4, Tolliver 3-1-7, Malady 2-3-8, Garner 5-6-17, Totals 14-13-45.

The score by periods:

St. James 14 12 16 13-55

Sullivan   11 11 16   7-45

Junior Varsity

St. James: Driskell 6-1-13, O. Spurgeon 0-1-1, Deluca 1-0-2, Jones 2-2-6, Huffman 3-3-10, Recker 2-2-6, Giacolone 2-0-5.

Sullivan: Price 1-2-4, Brauch 1-0-3, Jenkins 3-2-10, Lappe 1-0-3, Stout 1-1-3, Toews 0-2-2, Oldham 2-0-4.

Feb. 10 at St. James - STJ 58, Owensville 37: After a slow start the Tigers roared from the gate to start the second half to pull away.

The Owensville Dutchmen opened the game by scoring 12 of the game’s first 14 points. And a driving layup by junior Keigan Glaser at the 2:26 mark of the opening period gave the visitor’s a 12-2 advantage.

St. James went on a hot streak of its own the rest of the first quarter into the opening of the second period, going on a 14-3 run. And a driving layup by Boone with 5:08 left in the half gave the Tigers their first lead of the game, 16-15.

The lead would change hands six times in the second period. And a layup by Smith with two seconds left gave STJ a 24-23 halftime edge.

The Tigers reeled off the first 16 points of the second half to take a comfortable lead it would keep the rest of the way. A spinning layup by senior guard Nick Gleason with 2:12 remaining in the third period capped the run to give St. James a 40-23 cushion. Owensville would hit its lone field goal of the quarter with 26 seconds left - a three-pointer - and the Tigers led 42-28 entering the final period.
Another 11-2 Tiger run to start the fourth quarter iced things. Meurer’s lay-in off a Smith assist with 3:10 left gave the Tigers their largest lead of the game, 53-30.

Gleason paced St. James with 20 points - his eighth straight double-digit scoring game - while Smith added 11 points, four assists and four steals and Gruver dished out five assists and made two steals.
Junior guard Chase Crosby scored all 16 of his points in the first half. Boone was switched to guard Crosby in the second half and shut him out the rest of the way.

St. James easily won the JV game 52-13 and took the freshman game 49-30.

The individual scoring:

Varsity
St. James: Boone 3-1-7, Gruver 3-0-7, Gleason 9-0-20, Smith 5-0-11, Bell 2-0-4, O. Spurgeon 1-0-2, Meurer 2-3-7, Totals 25-4-58.

Owensville (9-11, 2-2): Watson 3-2-8, Glaser 2-2-7, Chapman 1-0-3, Crosby 5-2-16, Weirich 1-0-3, Totals 12-6-37.

The score by periods:

Owensville  15    8  5   9-37

St. James       9 15 18 16-58

Junior Varsity

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

Owensville: Menz 2-0-5, Sublett 1-0-2, Kramme 1-0-3, Brooks 1-0-3.

Freshmen
St. James: Dean 2-0-4, Otto 4-5-14, Engelbrecht 1-0-2, Hodge 1-0-2, Siders 3-1-7, Rivers 1-0-2, Pruitt 5-1-11, Earney 3-0-7.

Owensville: Phillips 1-4-7, Staton 1-0-3, Sublett 1-0-3, Mogensen 3-0-6, Wehmeyer 1-0-2, Budnik 2-0-5, Downey 2-0-4.