Vandalia boys basketball got a big win over South Central Conference rival Pana, 65 to 44, to claim fifth place at the Vandalia Holiday Tournament on Monday. The Vandals ran out to a big 13-0 lead before the Panthers were able to score their first basket of the game to cut it to 13-2. Pana would go on a 8-6 run the last few minutes of the quarter, but Vandalia held on to a 19-10 lead to end the first. The Vandals again went on a quick run to begin the second quarter with seven quick points to get their lead up to 26-12 and ended the half with a 37-22 lead. Pana would hang tight with the Vandals, cutting the lead down to eight and nine points at times, but a 12-10 scoring advantage in the quarter had Vandalia up 49-32 at the end of the third. The Vandals kept their foot on the gas in the fourth quarter, as they would outscore the Panthers in the quarter, 16-12, to finish out the 65-44 win. Three Vandals would finish in double digit scoring led by Andrew Casey finished with 18 points, Wade Brannon tallied 15 points and Lucas Bowers added 12 points. The Vandals move to 7-9 on the season and will have just a few days off before they get the 2025 portion of their schedule going this Friday, January 3 with their 8th home game in row as they host North Clay before then taking a week off from competition.
After the completion of the Championship game, the All-Tournament Team was announced with the Vandals Wade Brannon named to this year’s team. Brannon finished the tournament with 73 points and 30 rebounds averaging 14.6 points per game and 6 rebounds per game. He had tournament highs of 21 points in the game against Mulberry Grove and 10 rebounds in the game against Pana.
Vandalia Scoring vs. Pana:
Andrew Casey – 18 points
Wade Brannon – 15 points
Lucas Bowers – 12 points
Qwentyn Stombaugh – 7 point
Brenton McCarty – 6 points
Ian Whitehead – 3 points
Tanner Stone – 2 points
Carter Robbins – 2 points
