“I’ve got to give it to my teammates,” Vest said. “I like to pride myself on being able to make open shots, and my teammates got me open all night. I just had to make them.”
Vest had at least four points in every quarter, knocked down a trio of 3-pointers and sank all five of his free throws for CJ, which moved to 12-3 overall and 6-0 in the Greater Catholic League Coed North Division.
“We put some different guys on him. The kid just had a hell of a night. Period,” Rams coach Matt Thompson said. “That’s why he’s going D-I.
“It would’ve been easy for our guys to pack it in, but they played hard to the end. I’m proud of that. We got a lot of good shots against a very good team. We’ll move on.”
Christian Montague tallied 12 points and 10 rebounds for the Eagles, and Myo Baxter-Bell put up 11 points and eight boards.
The Eagles took off in the second period, notching 12 consecutive points to make it a 26-11 affair. The visitors led by as many as 28 points and just had too many weapons for Badin (5-8, 0-6 GCLC Central).
“We’ve got more than Badin, but our kids did play real well on top of that,” CJ coach Joe Staley said. “I feel great about our team, but I worry about every game on our schedule. We’ve got a tough road the rest of the way.”
Logan Heintzman and Jordan Rutherford provided 11 points apiece for the Rams. They only turned the ball over six times, but shot 34 percent from the field and converted 4 of 11 charity tosses.
Staley said the Eagles went to a zone midway through the first stanza, specifically to contain Badin’s Zach Larkin. He scored five points.
“It worked, but a lot of our guys got good shots against their defense. I don’t have too many complaints there,” Thompson said. “We just didn’t hit the shots.”
Baxter-Bell didn’t have a monster night offensively, but the 6-foot-4 senior’s presence has an enormous effect on opponents.
“People can’t guard Myo,” Staley said. “Everybody has to help on him, and we get a lot of open looks because of that. What you saw from Vest tonight is what he does every night.”
Said Vest, “I was just playing. We know Badin’s tough. We just had to come into the game thinking that we were the better team. It was a good team victory for the Eagles.”
Staley liked the play of Miles Joiner (seven points, two rebounds) off the bench for CJ, which was 10 of 12 at the line and committed nine turnovers. Jacob Harrison chipped in five boards.
The Rams finished the contest with a 10-3 spurt to make the final margin a little more respectable. Nine of those points came on treys, two by Sergio Berrios and one by David Begley.
Larkin grabbed six rebounds and Philip Dozier added five for Badin.
The Rams will be at home against Finneytown on Saturday. The Eagles will host Dunbar on Tuesday.
CJ 14-18-18-14—64
Badin 8-7-12-16—43
CHAMINADE JULIENNE (12-3, 6-0): Christian Montague 3 5 12; Myo Baxter-Bell 5 0 11; Zachary Burneka 1 0 3; Alan Vest 10 5 28; Miles Joiner 3 0 7; Daniel Meyer 1 0 3. Totals: 23-10-64.
BADIN (5-8, 0-6): Andrew Hetterich 1 0 3; Zach Larkin 2 1 5; Philip Dozier 1 2 4; Logan Heintzman 4 1 11; Sergio Berrios 2 0 6; David Begley 1 0 3; Jordan Rutherford 5 0 11. Totals: 16-4-43.
3-pters: CJ 8 (Vest 3, Montague, Joiner, Meyer, Baxter-Bell, Burneka), B 7 (Heintzman 2, Berrios 2, Hetterich, Begley, Rutherford)
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