When Wright City decided to take what the St. James defense gave it in the first quarter of the Hermann Tournament third-place game, it worked out alright.

The Wildcats scored the majority of their 15 first-quarter points from the outside, and trailed 20-15 after eight minutes Saturday.

But things quickly fell apart.

“They were just really quick, and it kept our kids off their game,” Wright City Head Coach David Evans said after his team’s 81-50 loss. “We just couldn’t adjust to their quickness. In order to beat them, you have to be a team that can pass the ball well and be disciplined enough to know when to pass.”

St. James began trapping Wildcat guards at half-court, which negated Wright City’s biggest strength, which is its ability to score in transition.

“We’re a team that likes to get the ball and get up the court, so it was just against our nature of what we run as a team,” Evans said. “You could say they had us scouted out better than we scouted them, or they just have the right clientele of kids.”

The Tigers extended their lead to 55-32 at halftime, despite facing multiple Wright City defensive schemes.

“Our plan tonight was to keep switching it up,” Evans said. “We run all of our defenses in about the same capacity, so we were just trying to keep them on their toes and keep them out of it a little bit. Part of the difficulty with that is that we don’t always practice that, so some of the guys had a little bit of a hard time when we kept switching on the fly.”

Devon Holmes led the Wildcats with 14 points, J.J. McRoberts scored 12 and David Liddell added 11.

As St. James continued to build its lead in the third quarter, Wright City players became visibly frustrated. 

Evans pulled Holmes in the third quarter after he not-so-subtly showed his displeasure with a foul call, believing a St. James player embellished after contact.

Early in the fourth, Sean McDonald fouled out, and was given a technical after arguing with an official.

“This one hurt our kids mentally, so it’s going to take some work to rebuild from this,” Evans said.

The Wildcats finish the season with five conference games, beginning with Friday’s home game against Silex.

“We finish the rest of the season out with a lot of conference stuff, and we’re capable of winning the rest of the games,” Evans said. “But we were capable of winning tonight, too, so it will come down to if we’re ready to play, both mentally and physically.”