Bragging rights: All ‘A’ Classic MVP has a title to match his uncle’s
St. Henry’s Wyatt Vieth scored 30 points, including key free throws down the stretch, and the Crusaders held off Frankfort 77-70 Sunday for the school’s second All “A” Classic state championship at Eastern Kentucky’s McBrayer Arena.
Vieth, who was named the small-school tournament’s MVP, had some personal motivation for the victory. His uncle, Todd Vieth, was a Crusaders starter on St. Henry’s other All “A” championship team in 2003.
“Now I have something to brag about to him,” Wyatt Vieth said. “But, you know, we’ve still got the rest of the season, so, hopefully, we’ll be at Rupp (Arena) in March.”
According to the week’s Rating the State by Dave Cantrall, St. Henry (16-3) came in as the tournament’s highest-rated team and it faced a Frankfort squad that had lost nine straight before All “A” play began and was one of the field’s lowest-rated squads.
But Frankfort (11-13) tore through the tournament this week and held the lead twice on Sunday. And even when St. Henry tried to put some distance on the Panthers in the second half, it couldn’t.
“We’re just real proud to represent Frankfort,” said Panthers Coach Chris O’Bryan. Frankfort brought one of the largest crowds of the week to Sunday’s championship game. “Hopefully, we can use this to springboard ourselves into the district. We’ve got three really important district games coming up.”
Early in the game, it looked as if the Panthers’ magic would continue. A Nathaniel Bryant tip-in gave Frankfort a 14-10 lead with just over a minute left in the first quarter.
But St. Henry outscored Frankfort 22-12 in a decisive second period, getting five points from Vieth and eight from Ryan Butler, including a bucket that extended the Crusaders’ lead to 37-22 just before halftime.
“When we built our lead, it was because we were running our offense, and we were doing a really good job of keeping them out of the lane,” St. Henry Coach David Faust said. “Give credit to Frankfort. They came back like gangbusters … I think down the stretch we got the ball where we needed it to go.”
Frankfort closed to within six points a few times in the fourth quarter, but each time Vieth and his teammates answered with a key bucket or free throws. Vieth scored 10 points in the fourth quarter, including going 6-for-6 from the free-throw line.
Butler finished with 15 points. Jude Bessler had 12 for St. Henry. Jackson Twombly led four Panthers in double figures with 17 points.
