St. Vincent-St. Mary is a win away from its 7th state title under coach Dru Joyce after rout of Archbishop Alter
By Ryan Isley | Photos by Ben Jackson
DAYTON, Ohio — St. Vincent-St. Mary boys basketball keeps adding chapters to the ever-growing book of its legacy.
In the latest, STVM (22-4) advanced to its sixth straight state championship game (not including the cut-short 2020 season) with a 72-47 win over Archbishop Alter on Friday at University of Dayton Arena and will face Gilmour Academy at 2 p.m. Sunday.
After watching Malachi Branham win Ohio Mr. Basketball and lead the team to a state title last season, Sencire Harris was dubbed the next one up.
Even before the season, coach Dru Joyce said he believed Harris was the best player in Ohio.
After their win in the regional semifinals last week, Joyce reiterated that statement.
“I believe and I guess I have a bias that Sencire Harris is the best player in the state hands down,” Joyce said. “When you look at all the stuff he can do on the floor, there is nobody who can match his talent in the state of Ohio.”
Harris has delivered this season, leading the Fighting Irish with 20.3 points per game. He scored 18 in the win over Alter, but none more emphatic than a fourth quarter one-handed dunk after he got a steal at midcourt.
The basket put STVM up 63-45 with three minutes left in the game and cemented the win for the Fighting Irish. After the dunk, Alter called a timeout and Harris let out a boisterous scream.
“I really thought when I got that steal and all of my emotions came out, we did it, we fought back so hard,” Harris said. “I’m proud of this group. We started the season off 0-2, and after that we came together and figured things out.”
Part of figuring things out was laid at the feet of Harris and Ramar Pryor, the two senior leaders of the Fighting Irish.
Pryor was second on the team in scoring at 15.5 points per game, and the Cleveland State commit led STVM with 23 points against Alter. Harris and Pryor did exactly what their head coach wanted.
“I’m a big firm believer in senior leadership,” Joyce said. “So I challenged them at the beginning of this season that this was their team, and they have to lead this thing. They have done it in a great way.”
It wasn’t all easy for the Fighting Irish this season, however. Not only did they start 0-2, but they had a trip in the summer that seemed like a bad omen for the season.
“In June we rode to a little event down in Kentucky, and we almost ran out of gas somewhere out there in the country,” Joyce said. “We weren’t very good.”
But STVM put the work in. The Fighting Irish practiced every day, sometimes for more than three hours a day and almost exclusively on the defensive end of the court.
Putting in the hours of hard work and sweat is what has made this run to the state championship game so gratifying for the Fighting Irish.
“Coach Dru was saying in the locker room before the game that people think that it’s just easy,” Pryor said. “But we actually put in the work in the summer and during the season. We practice every day, so this isn’t something that just comes easy. You have to put in the work. And that’s what we do.”
It’s that kind of culture that has led the Fighting Irish to the Division II state title in 2017, 2018 and 2021, and they were the state runner-up in Division II in 2016.
They were also the state runner-up in Division I in 2019. When COVID-19 shortened the 2020 season, STVM was still alive in the playoffs.
But even with all that success, Joyce knows it isn’t easy or something to be taken for granted.
“This is kind of special for me,” STVM coach Dru Joyce said. “Everyone always asks me you’ve done this so many times, does it ever get old? It just doesn’t.”
In their 21st year under Joyce, STVM has claimed the state title six times, been the runner-up four times and has made the state final four 13 times.
“There are a whole bunch of coaches who know X’s and O’s better than me,” Joyce said. “But I know how to build a team. I know how to get guys to see a vision and to work toward it. But even with all that, you have to have some talent, and these guys bring a lot of talent.”
That talent includes his two star players who have STVM on the brink of another state title. But it also includes players like Lance Hayes, Darius Stratford and Kevin Hamilton who fill out the starting lineup.
“You have a new group, and you have young men like (Harris and Pryor), and it makes it special,” Joyce said. “It makes it special to see how this group grew from early in the year.”
As for Pryor and Harris, they are hoping to add their chapter to the record books at STVM, alongside Branham, Jayvon Graves, Lundan McDay, Romeo Travis and LeBron James, among others.
“They came here — these two and guys in the past — they wanted to be a part of it,” Joyce said. “This is an ongoing story, and they are writing their chapter.”
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