KIRKWOOD • The Vianney basketball team is off to the best start in school history, and the Golden Griffins added to their impressive resume on Friday.
Undefeated Vianney entered the 34th Meramec Holiday Festival High School Basketball Tournament as the No. 2 seed and emerged from the four-games-in-four-days grinder with the school's first Meramec championship.
The Golden Griffins had four players in double figures, led by Tony Cochran's 17 points, and used an 18-for-18 performance at the free throw line to defeat No. 8 seed CBC 66-57 in the title game at St. Louis Community College at Meramec.
"I was really proud of our guys, not only for tonight, but four games in four days, four different styles," Vianney coach Kevin Walsh said. "From Lafayette and their patience and good half-court offense. Webster, that was just a war last night. CBC's pressure and athleticism. I was really proud of our guys. They battled for four straight days."
Vianney, the No. 2 team in the STLhighschoolsports.com large-schools rankings, ran its record to 11-0 and claimed its second tournament title of the season. The Golden Griffins opened the season by winning their own Jerry Boeckman Memorial Invitational. Vianney had never started a season with five straight wins before this year.
"This is one of the best feelings I've ever had in my life," Cochran said. "The past four years we've always been pretty good, but now this year we're taking it to the next level. Obviously, we're undefeated, and we're putting it all together this year."
CBC (8-4), which lost to Vianney 59-56 on Dec. 9, already had knocked off No. 1 seed McCluer in the quarterfinals and No. 4 seed De Smet in the semifinals and was attempting to win its first Meramec title since 1995.
The Cadets, who got a game-high 19 points from forward Jordan Barnett, led 28-27 at halftime after a buzzer-beater by Aarion Penton (17 points). But Vianney took over in the third quarter.
The Golden Griffins put together a 17-2 run, including two 3-pointers from Richard Dorhauer (15 points), six points from George Suggs (15 points) and a 3-pointer from Brad Woodson (11 points) to establish a 15-point lead.
"We have a veteran group," Woodson said. "Last year we played great in the second half. This year, we've been down at halftime in most of our games, and we know that our third and fourth quarters are where we really start playing."
CBC fought back in the fourth period. The Cadets used a 12-2 run -- with six points from Penton and five from Barnett -- to cut Vianney's advantage to 54-52 with 2 minutes 30 seconds left, but were not able to get any closer. Cochran answered with a 3-pointer, and the Griffins made 10 free throws in the final 2:05.
"Hats got to go off to Vianney," CBC coach Bob McCormack said. "They are a senior-laden team that proved it tonight. We got back on our heels a little bit in that third quarter. It's really hard to recover from it."
WEBSTER GROVES 69, DE SMET 68: Rayshawn Simmons scored a career-high 32 points and had seven assists, and Brennan Coltrane added 13 points as the third-seeded Statesmen (8-1) defeated the fourth-seeded Spartans (8-4) in the third-place game. Eric Moeller led De Smet with 19 points, while Jamie Hudson had 14 and Nolan Berry 11.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM: Marquette senior center Ryan Rosburg was named to the Meramec all-tournament team for the third straight year, becoming just the eighth participant to be selected three times.
De Smet junior forward Nolan Berry and Vianney junior guard Brad Woodson were both picked for the second straight year.
The rest of the 11-member all-tournament team included: CBC sophomores Jordan Barnett and Patrick McCaw, Vianney senior guard Tony Cochran, Webster Groves senior guard Rayshawn Simmons and senior forward Demetrius Robinson, De Smet junior guard Jimmy Barton, McCluer senior guard Demetrious Floyd and Troy senior guard Derek Deters.
