4 observations from first round of Coaches vs. Cancer Holiday Tournament

Here are a few observation from the eight first-round games:

Bringing football to the court

Nolan Savoie chuckled when asked if he has to hold back from wrapping up the shooter when he closes out.

"At times, yeah — I do need to hold back at times," said the Lafayette junior, who helped the Lancers football team reach the Class 5 state semifinals before shifting to basketball.

Opponents are rejoicing when they hear that.

That doesn't mean he's any less of a terror on the court as he was on the gridiron, and Liberty got a taste of that on Friday with Lafayette knocking off Liberty, 53-38.

Lafayette (4-4) will play De Smet (6-1) at 3 p.m. Saturday in a quarterfinal matchup.

On the football field, Savoie led the Lancers with five interceptions. He also brought the lumber with 74 tackles.

His tackling prowess was left on the gridiron, but his knack for getting into the passing lanes has carried over.

"I learned how important it is to really move my feet — how important it is to be in the right spot at the right time," Savoie said. "Just being able to see what other teams can do."

The junior intercepted two passes Friday to add to his five steals on the season. He also added 10 points in the first-round win.

The Lancers have used the end of the football season as motivation for this basketball season.

"It put a chip on my shoulder, especially playing Helias earlier this year," Savoie said. "It really showed us how important it is to take games into our hand."

Outside of exacting a measure of revenge against Helias in the third game of the season, the Lancers have had a rocky start. They got a perfect holiday present with a rivalry victory over Eureka just before the holiday break.

"That was a momentum changer," Savoie said. "That felt good, it was a good win and we feel like we've taken a step in the right direction."

Vianney makes it rain

Everyone was getting on the 3-point fun.

Everyone but the area leader in scoring, Luke Walsh.

That's OK for the Vianney senior.

"You'll have a game where you make seven 3s and then have a game where you don't hit any," Walsh said. "Being able to score in different ways has definitely helped up my game and helped this team."

Behind a flurry of 3-pointers, Vianney doubled up Fort Zumwalt South 74-37 at Maryville University.

Vianney (5-2) will play Eureka (4-1) at 4:30 p.m. in Saturday's quarterfinal round.

Walsh led all scorers with 27 points, but he failed to connect on any of his 3-pointers and went a rare 0-for-5 from long range.

Still, the Golden Griffins hit 10 3-pointers in the game, with junior Ben Karsten getting five of them. Senior Harrison Carter scored back-to-back 3s in the third quarter for his first two 3-pointers of the season. The first one to congratulate his fellow senior was Walsh, sprinting from the bench to nearly tackle him in celebration.

"I try to think about whether I'm scoring or not I'm helping them get involved and remain confident," Walsh said.

This is the fourth successive season the Griffins have notched five wins in their first seven games. Despite that feat, Walsh wants to use the tournament to show their third-place state tournament finish last year wasn't a blip on the radar.

"We're trying to show people, especially in this tournament what we can do," Walsh said.

De Smet, Webster Groves roll

The Spartans and Statesmen met last year in the titlematch up on the final day of the 2023 Coaches vs. Cancer tournament.

The pair ran away from their opponents Friday, with defending Class 5 champion De Smet dispatching Troy 91-22 and defending tournament champion Webster Groves notching a 68-18 win over Parkway West.

The 91 points is the most scored by De Smet since it scored 97 points against McCluer North on Nov. 29, 2021. De Smet will play Lafayette at 3 p.m. Saturday in its quarterfinal matchup.

De Smet got double-digit scoring from five players, led by Braden Butler's 13 points.

Webster Groves turned in its best defensive performance since only giving up 15 points to Chicago Foundations on Jan. 16, 2020. The Statesmen will play Marquette at 7:30 p.m. in Saturday's quarterfinal round.

Statesmen sophomore Scottie Adkinson led all scorers with 20 points in only two and a half quarters of play.

Defense reigns supreme at Westminster

It's a pride thing when the Wildcats suit up.

They don't care about what the scoreboard says under their name. Westminster only wants to put the clamps on their opponents.

"I think our players work hard at it," Westminster coach Dale Ribble said. "I also think they take a lot of pride in that team defense. We've got good athletes and guys who communicate well on that end of the floor and take pride in getting stops."

That suffocating defense was on full display Friday as Westminster knocked off Mehlville 53-32.

Westminster (7-0) will play Hickman (8-1) at 6 p.m. Saturday in a quarterfinal round game.

It's the first time since 2021-22 the Wildcats have started the season 7-0.

Friday, the defense held Mehlville to just four points in the over 13 minutes of play in the second and third quarters as the offense found its groove.

"We executed better on that end of the floor," Ribble said. "I thought we played really well defensively the last three quarters of the game. We did a good job on some of their personnel. That first quarter, we just didn't play well defensively. Luckily we were able to score enough to be in the game after that first quarter and made some plays."

In nine years under Ribble, the defense has been lights out at the Town and Country based school.

In his first year, the defense gave up nearly 57 points a game. Since then, the Wildcats have given up 44 or less points a game in five of the last eight years, including a staggering 34.2 points allowed in 2021-22.