Spoofhounds capture first district title since 2019
KEN GARNER/THE FORUM
Maryville celebrates around senior Derek Quinlin and the district championship plaque on Saturday in St. Joseph.
ST. JOSEPH, Mo.— It was a rematch a year in the making for the Maryville boys basketball team and it was an opportunity they were not going to let pass them by.
This time last season the Spoofhounds fell in a closely contested game to Lafayette in the district title game. Maryville, this time around, did not let the luck of the Irish strike as they beat Lafayette on its home court to capture the Class 4, District 16 championship 63-51 on Saturday night in St. Joseph in front of a near-capacity crowd.
“It feels great,” junior Peyton McCollum said. “We knew coming in this wasn’t just a normal game, it was a revenge game too.”
Coach Matt Stoecklein was extremely proud of his team as they captured the Spoofhounds first district title since 2019.
“They’ve had this day in mind all season since last year when we lost in a close one,” he said. “They’ve had this in sight … and I’m super proud of the boys.”
Maryville set the tone early playing a physical brand of basketball putting pressure on the home team on both sides of the floor.
Usually a perimeter-shooting team, the Spoofhounds changed tactics and scored from the inside by driving to the basket for points or getting baskets from putbacks on offensive rebounds and playing through contact on offense. On the other end of the floor, Maryville routinely forced the Irish into difficult shots and generally limited each possession to only one shot.
“We just had to bully the bullies out there – that was our mindset,” McCollum said.
Senior Delton Davis scored the first five points of the game for Maryville and then McCollum got rolling as well by driving to the basket.
The Spoofhounds built a 17-12 lead at the end of the first quarter with McCollum and Davis doing the heavy lifting early as they scored eight and seven points respectively.
“We knew the biggest thing going into the game was energy,” Davis said. “Our student section and our crowd came out. We all had that energy and we topped their energy. I think that leads to getting loose balls, hitting shots and forcing turnovers.”
Freshman Tate McCollum came off the bench and provided a spark to start the second quarter and scored six straight points to give Maryville an 11-point lead midway through the quarter. Peyton McCollum picked up where his younger brother left off and scored the Hounds final seven points of the first half to go into the break up 32-22.
Coming out of halftime, Lafayette was able to cut Maryville’s lead to six points. However, that was as close as the Irish would get as Davis would answer each Lafayette basket by scoring eight points in the quarter. The Spoofhounds would close out the third quarter with 9-0 run to push the lead to 17 points. A Peyton McCollum basket in the first minute of the final quarter extended the run and Maryville’s lead to 19 points.
Stoecklein said that his team was able to build and maintain its lead by sticking to the game plan.
“We’ve been stressing move the ball and make defense work,” he said. “When we shot early we weren’t making (shots), but man, when we move the ball we looked really, really good.”
It was at that point where the Irish began shooting almost exclusively from 3-point land and would eventually cut the lead to 11 points late in the game, but Maryville continued to play methodically and not hurry shots to seal the 12-point win.
Peyton McCollum led the Spoofhound attack with a game-high 25 points. Davis had 17 points to go along with 10 rebounds for a double-double. Senior Derek Quinlin scored nine points and Tate McCollum added six points, while juniors Matthew Walter and Lucas Vierthaler rounded out the scoring with four and two points respectively.
Lafayette was led in scoring by Antonio Williams’ 21 points before fouling out in the fourth quarter.
Heading into the title game Davis knew that that Hounds would have to compete with Lafayette’s energy.
“You know coming into Lafayette you always have that mentality that it’s going to be a physical game and it’s going to get chippy,” he said. “We knew that and were going to have to match it. Overall, it was just a great team effort.”
Besides playing with high energy, Stoecklein said that his team was prepared for a physical brand of basketball and that it was something they have been practicing on.
“You’ve got to be physical,” he said. “Because moments like this you’ve got to be ready for it and I was super proud how they handled the pressure, the hands on and the physicality of the entire night.”
Although it was technically an away game, the Spoofhound faithful made their presence known throughout and it was not lost on the players.
“Hey, that’s Maryville,” Quinlin said. “That’s the community we have and we’re lucky to have that. I felt like our student section really showed out. It felt like a home game honestly because it was loud in here.”
The Spoofhounds will host Central (Kansas City) on Tuesday at Bearcat Arena for the right to advance to the Final Four in Columbia with a 6 p.m. tip-off.
But for now Maryville is excited about winning the district championship, something no one on this team has ever accomplished.
“It’s awesome,” Peyton McCollum said. “It’s what you think about in the offseason, it’s what you think about all year, it’s what sports is built on. I mean it’s amazing.”
Davis echoed his teammates sentiment.
“It’s been a long time coming,” he said. “We had a chip on our shoulder coming back to get this one. It feels really great to bring one home.”
