Vandals end season with regional loss to Greenville

By Editor | March 4, 2015 |

A poor first half doomed Vandalia’s hopes of upsetting No. 1 seed Greenville in boys regional semifinals last Wednesday at Vandalia.

But the second half showed the Vandals’ coach what he had been seeing from his team all season – a fight to the end.
The Comets scored 21 points in the first quarter while limiting the Vandals to baskets by Austin Durbin, Drake Dokey and Kain DuFaux.
The second quarter wasn’t any better, as Greenville outscored the Vandals 12-4 to take a 33-10 lead into halftime.
But, the Vandals came back fighting in the second half, twice narrowing the Comets’ lead to 14 points. Vandalia outscored Greenville in both the third (18-13) and fourth (13-12) quarters.
“We did things not so sharp early on, and we outplayed them in the second half,” coach Brian Buscher said.
“Some of it is momentum, but some of it is that we didn’t execute well enough in the first half to get ourselves sparked,” he said.
Buscher said a team can build on defensive stops and big plays, “but we weren’t getting stops, so there was nothing to build on.
“They had only two outside shots in the first half and I’m not sure they had any the second half (outside 10-12 feet). Everything else was inside,” he said.
“We were trying to pack it inside, we were trying to get rebounds, but weren’t successful at that.
“I wouldn’t have thought that we would have been in that spot in the first half, but then, I also wouldn’t have thought that we would have played that hard in the second half to come back,” Buscher said.
“Looking back, we’ve been doing that all year, that’s the part I’m most proud of, as far as them playing hard.
“We always kept battling,” he said. “That’s ingrained in our players, that’s how we play – we’re going to fight, we’re going to claw tooth and nail until the game’s over.”
In his final basketball game for the Vandals, senior Collin Nestleroad led the Vandals with 11 points. Freshman Nathan Casey added nine points, and sophomore Kain DuFaux chipped in seven.
The Vandals ended their season at 7-22.
Vandalia – Nestleroad 4-10 1-2 0-0 11, Casey 3-5 0-2 3-3 9 Durbin 1-4 0-2 0-0 2, Well 2-3 0-7 0-3 4, Jones 1-2 0-0 0-0 2, DuFaux 2-4 0-1 3-3 7, Dokey 3-6 0-2 0-0 6. Totals 16-34 1-16 6-9 41.
Greenville – Schaufelberger 2 0-0 2-3 6; Faulkner 2 0-0 4-7 8, Chelovich 1 0-0 0-0 2, R. Hutchinson 0 0-0 2-2 2, Hall 7 2 0-0 20, T. Hutchinson 3 0-0 0-0 6, Lawrence 1 0-0 3-4 5, Holden 4 0-0 0-2 8, Meadows 0 0-0 1-2 1. Totals 20 2 20 58.
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Patoka advanced to the Effingham Sectional Tournament this Wednesday by edging No. 1 seed in the championship game of the Odin Regional, 57-54.
Patoka, which advanced to the regional final by defeating Christ Our Rock Lutheran, 48-45, and South Central, 61-44, was to face Casey-Westfield at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at Effingham St. Anthony.