Stars Win Championship

WASHINGTON, MO. • McCluer North doesn’t rattle easily for a team of mostly juniors and sophomores. 

The Stars watched a slim lead slip away in the second half, then yanked it right back and held on for a 59-52 boys basketball victory against Pacific in the championship game of the 65th Annual Borgia Turkey Tournament.

A’Tavian Butler provided the calm in the center of the storm Friday night, recording 18 points and 11 rebounds as McCluer North improved to 3-0. 

Butler was named tournament MVP after scoring 10 of his points in a see-saw fourth quarter Saturday.

“I had to do a lot of things to help my team out,” Butler said. “I kinda got off to a slow start, missing easy buckets, but I ended up finding my way by the end of the game.”

Cameron VanLeer, a fourth-year starter for Pacific (2-1), led all scorers with 21 points, and often found himself matched up against McCluer North’s Butler.

Often the two scorers answered each other's buckets during the rollicking second half, but by the fourth quarter, Butler’s shots were falling and VanLeer’s weren’t.

“VanLeer is a nice player,” Butler said. “I like how he plays. I had to defend him well to try and stop him from going to the basket. He was able to catch us on some easy buckets.”

Indians coach John VanLeer, who is Cameron’s father, could not fault his son for trying to put the team on his back against the tough, athletic Stars.

“There might have been a couple times (Cameron VanLeer) drove when he could have given the ball up, but he’s a scorer and we need him to score for us,” the senior VanLeer said. 

“He can get to the rim. He can hit the 3. So, no, I don’t think he tried to do too much. He’s gotta shoot the ball and I’m not gonna second guess what he does.”

McCluer North clung to a slight lead for much of the first half, despite almost having its run-and-gun attack almost backfire with six first-quarter turnovers.

“Pacific slowed us down,” Stars head coach Trevor Laney said. “They didn’t let us do our running game and they handled our pressure very well. When they don’t turn the ball over against all that pressure, you can keep a low scoring game, and Pacific did everything right to minimize (what we do) to create offense.”

Pacific trailed 21-16 at the break but grabbed the lead on a bucket by VanLeer at the end of the third quarter, off an assist from Matt Strong, who’d hit an earlier 3-pointer to begin tilting the momentum the Indians’ way.

Pacific took a 39-35 lead early in the fourth on another VanLeer bucket, this time from a Ryan Sauvage assist, but 3-pointers by McCluer North’s Steve Lee (12 points) and Mekai Ray (7 points) took the energy back again. 

Butler scored five points in a row in the middle of the fourth quarter as the Stars increased their lead to 53-47 — just enough to hang on.

“The thing I was impressed most with about the kids tonight was, whenever they got down, the crowd was against them, they stayed with their offensive sets and kept their poise,” Laney said. “They didn’t panic. They executed to get good shots and get good defensive stops when they needed to.”

Tom Hennessy and Trey Boyer finished with 13 and 10 points, respectively, for Pacific.