Luke Walsh, Symon Ghai lead Vianney past St. Mary's to win Missouri Class 5 District 2 basketball title
WEBSTER GROVES, MISSOURI – As the final seconds ticked off the clock on Tuesday night, Vianney basketball coach Kevin Walsh sat on the end of his team's bench and soaked it all in.
The long-time Golden Griffins coach watched his team rally from a 14-point halftime deficit to defeat St. Mary’s 80-73 to win the Class 5 District 2 championship and watched his son, Luke, lead the way with a game-high 28 points.
“You do this long enough, you just want to sit back and enjoy the kids and watch them experience that,” Walsh said. “We’ve lost three district championship games in a row. We’ve talked all year about choosing your pain – the pain of regret or the pain of discipline – and we’ve had those second place in district plaques hanging on the wall in our locker room.
“I thought about the time that these guys have put in, thought about our seniors especially. We’ve got four great seniors in Spoon (Charlie Spoonhour) and Teddy (Ochs) and Nate (Picha) and Ashton (Wells) and I’m just so happy for them. Neat moment for our program. It’s been since 2015 since we’ve won a district. After that first half I wasn’t sure if they were gonna run us out of the gym, but we made some nice adjustments. We went to the 1-3-1 (defense) and I think they scored 20 in the second half.”
The No. 6 team in the SBLive Missouri Power 25 rankings, Vianney (23-6) – which advances to face second-ranked Sikeston (28-1) in the quarterfinals on Saturday – trailed fourth-ranked St. Mary’s (25-4) by 14 points, 53-39, at halftime after getting into early foul trouble.
Sophomore 7-foot-3 center Symon Ghai headed to the bench after he picked up two fouls in the first three minutes and 30 seconds. Sophomore guard Eddie Smajic joined him there after he picked up his third foul with 1:30 left in the opening quarter.
The teams were tied at 23-23 after one quarter but the Dragons broke open the game in the second quarter behind standout junior guard Zyree Collins.
He scored 15 of his 23 first-half points in the second quarter – he finished with 27 points – to lead St. Mary’s to the 14-point advantage at the intermission.
“I told the guys a couple things at halftime,” Kevin Walsh said. “I said, one, Symon (Ghai) played about three minutes. Eddie (Smajic) played about four minutes. We’re obviously a different team with them. Then I told them just to close their eyes and take three deep breaths and just settle down. It was just so raucous. We settled in and I was really so pleased with our effort in the second half.”
Ghai and Smajic made a big difference in the second half.
Ghai scored 14 of his 18 points in the second half and Smajic scored seven of his 12 points in the second half.
“In my opinion I think he's the best big in the country or he’s getting there right now,” Luke Walsh said of Ghai. “The energy that he brought, he was grabbing every rebound, dunking everything – even though he got a funny technical – but he definitely brought the energy. The crowd was getting into it. He changed the whole game for us completely.”
Ghai scored eight points in the third quarter as Vianney cut the 14-point deficit to four points, 61-57, by the end of the quarter.
The surging Griffins tied the game at 61-61 on a driving layup by Luke Walsh with 6:45 remaining and struggling St. Mary’s couldn’t keep pace over the final minutes.
The Griffins outscored the Dragons 23-12 in the fourth quarter and 41-20 in the second half to complete the comeback.
“The past two years we’ve made it to the district championships we’ve lost,” Luke Walsh said. “So we were really focused coming into the game. They played really good in the first half. They were making shots. We weren’t playing the way that we felt like we could. Coming out at halftime we knew Eddie (Smajic) and Symon (Ghai) were going to be able to help us a lot and we just kept the same energy throughout the whole game and we were able to come back. It means a lot, especially for me and my team and Vianney, but especially for me and my dad to do this together.”
The younger Walsh relished the moment, winning the first district title for Vianney since 2016 and being able to do it with his dad.
“I’ve watched him win district championships with different teams,” Luke said, “but I’ve always dreamed of experiencing this with him – but especially going to the final four and we have a chance to do that on Saturday.”
Vianney - St. Mary's boys basketball
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- Nate Latsch | latsch@scorebooklive.com | @SBLiveMiz
