West rallies late, but falls to Hazelwood Central in Vianney Tournament semifinals

Hazelwood Central’s quickness took its toll on the Belleville West Maroons on Wednesday.

The top-seeded Hawks forced 20 turnovers and got a game-high 25 points from 6-foot-6 senior Xavier Sneed in a 75-60 victory in the semifinals of the Vianney Invitational Tournament.

Steve Holloway, a 5-10 senior, finished with 18 points and 6-7 senior Dominique Dobbs recorded a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

“We battled the whole game,” said Maroons coach Joe Muniz, who watched his team cut a 16-point deficit in the fourth quarter to just eight before the Hawks regained control. “We had it down to eight and had three or four stops. All we had to do was grab a rebound or grab a loose ball, but they anticipated a lot better than we did.

“The other thing is we weren’t very good down the stretch from the free-throw line. We got to the line 14 times, but in the fourth quarter, we were 2-of-7 from the free-throw line. We nailed all those free throws Monday night, but we didn’t knock them down tonight.”

Fourth-seeded West (1-1) will play third-seeded Vianney (1-1) for third place at 5:30 p.m. Friday. The Hawks (2-1) will play second-seeded Vashon (4-0) at 7 as they shoot for their third consecutive tournament championship. Hazelwood Central has won nine of the last 11 titles at Vianney, including seven straight from 2004-10.

“Any time you can play for a championship, I think it’s a great thing,” Hawks coach Josh Martin said. “I think this is a great tournament, with a lot of great teams and great coaches. It’s different teams from different areas that we don’t always see. It’s a great opportunity for us to put ourselves in position to compete for a championship Friday night.”

Key moments

The game was tied at 18 after one quarter and the Maroons trailed 38-35 at halftime, but things went south for West in the third quarter.

Junior Tyler Dancy, a 6-6 junior, missed most of the period after being hit in the nose. Freshman E.J. Liddell, also 6-6, went to the bench with his fourth foul with 2:43 to play in the quarter and Hazelwood Central leading 46-40.

With Dancy and Liddell on the bench, the Hawks stretched their lead to 57-43 by the end of the quarter and went ahead 59-43 on Sneed’s dunk with 7:30 left in the game.

The Maroons battled back to get within 61-53, but junior Logan Betz missed the first of a one-and-one chance at the line with 2 1/2 minutes to play, and the Hawks scored the next six points to move ahead 67-53 with 1:21 remaining.

“We had a stretch there where we shot five straight jump shots and quit attacking,” Martin said “We took a bad one and it kind of spread and was contagious. When you have a team on the ropes, on its heels, you’ve got to keep attacking. We settled for five straight jump shots and on the other end, Belleville West battled back.”

Dancy and Liddell scored 13 points apiece for the Maroons, while junior Elijah Powell had 12. Dancy and Liddell each grabbed seven rebounds, and Liddell chipped in with four assists.

“E.J. is a freshman,” Muniz said. “He’s going to have good games and he’s going to have bad games. He was being guarded by a 6-9 guy (Torrez Spencer) who is just as long as he is athletic. E.J. had some bad-luck calls on him. That’s just the nature of the game. But you’ve got to learn how to play through that. Overall, he competed just fine.”

Martin was impressed by Liddell.

“I think he’s a very talented kid. He’s going to have a bright future with Belleville West basketball,” Martin said. “He did some good things tonight and Monday.”

Looking ahead

Despite the loss, Muniz remains bullish on the Maroons. They are deeper than last year and feature more scoring balance.

“We’ve got a long way to go. We’ve got ways to improve,” Muniz said. “I think these guys will make that next step. We got a little taste of the Southwestern Conference in this game tonight. This was a very good team, a veteran team. (Martin’s) got 10 or 11 guys back from last year’s team that won a bunch of games.

“I’m disappointed we didn’t win, but I think there was a lot of positives that came out of there, too, and it was a good learning experience for our young guys. ... We just needed a few possessions to go our way.”

This story was originally published December 2, 2015 at 8:43 PM with the headline "West rallies late, but falls to Hazelwood Central in Vianney Tournament semifinals."