If the St. Louis Saints were supposed to roll over and let University Lab waltz back into the Class 3A state championship game, they didn’t get the memo.

The Saints weren’t able to muster enough to knock off the defending state champs, who won 51-40, but threatened to pull the upset for a majority of the night.

“As you can tell we came to win,” St. Louis head coach Rick LeBato said. “We really were right there all night. A couple of trips here and turnovers there cost us late. It took so much effort to guard their size and cover their shooters on the outside and we had to expend every bit of energy we had. We definitely had a chance to get it done, though.”

“(University) is a great team,” Saints senior Christian Fontenot said. “They won it last year and are No. 1 for a reason, but we definitely thought we were the ones to knock them off. Unfortunately we came up short.”

The loss brought an end to a Saints’ season which they reached the Top 28 for the first time in 17 years.

“It feels great to have made it this far,” Saints senior Dekeinen Francois said. “I can’t say I’m satisfied since we came up short, but we had a really good season and I’m proud of that.”

“It was huge,” LeBato said of his team’s season. “Each district game got bigger and bigger and the last three weeks have been tremendous. This was as much fun as you can possibly have and I really wanted the kids to experience that.”

The Saints (26-7) faced an extreme height disadvantage. Their tallest starter was shorter than University’s shortest player, which helped the Cubs (35-3) down the stretch.

“I think it was important defensively for us, particularly in the second half,” University head coach Joe Spencer said. “I don’t think we took full advantage of it on the offensive end, but it really helped us defensively late in the game.”

Junior Kelvin Henry provided the early spark for the Saints, scoring their first five points to put them ahead. Francois added four more points and St. Louis ended the first quarter with a 9-8 lead.

“This was a very hard-fought game,” Spencer said. “St. Louis had a great game plan and played with a ton of heart. We knew this was going to be a battle because they have a great fan base, great guards and they are really well coached.”

University’s Wayde Sims scored six points in the second half to give his team an 18-17 lead at halftime.

The Saints regained the lead two more times in the third quarter and kept the Cubs from pulling away until the final minute when St. Louis got into foul trouble.

Junior P.J. Hardy finished with 12 points for the Saints while Fontenot and Francois each added nine.

Sims finished with a game-high 17 points and 10 rebounds for the Cubs. Maxwell Starwood added 13 and Jalen Johnson scored 12.

P.J. Hardy (1) and the Saints will get another shot at University High and Jalen Johnson Wednesday night. 

Rick Hickman