Vandalia boys basketball picked up their fourth win in the last five games as they started 2025 off with an 84 to 78 win over North Clay at home on Friday night. The Vandals got the scoring started in the game with a basket from Wade Brannon for the early lead and would get 11 total from him in the first quarter as the Vandals jumped ahead 25-18 at the end of the quarter. Vandalia would go on a big second quarter run behind ten points from Qwentyn Stombaugh and lead by as much as 14 in the quarter before the Cardinals closed the Vandals lead to eight, 43-35, at halftime. North Clay jumped out with an 11-3 run to start the third quarter and tied the game up at 46-46, but the Vandals would quickly flip the script for a 19-10 to close the quarter with another ten points from Stombaugh to get their lead back to nine points, 65-56 to tend the third. Free throws would prove to be key in the fourth quarter as Brannon would go 5 of 8 from the line and Stombaugh 2 for 2 as the Vandals held off the Cardinals and closed out the 84-78 win. Brannon would finish with a career high 32 points in the win while Stombaugh finished with 25 points. Sophomore Lucas Bowers would also get into double digit scoring with nine points in the second half to give him eleven points in the game. The game featured the highest point total of the season for the Vandals whose previous high was 69 points. Vandalia is now 8-9 on the season and will get a week off of competition before getting back on the court on Friday with a conference game on the road at Carlinville.
Vandalia Scoring:
Wade Brannon – 32 points
Qwentyn Stombaugh – 25 points
Lucas Bowers – 11 points
Andrew Casey – 5 points
Carter Robbins – 4 points
Brenton McCarty – 3 points
Brady Elder – 2 points
Ian Whitehead – 2 points
