Bulldogs Back in Title Game with Win over St. James
- RoMoAthletics
- Jan 23
- 5 min read
January 22nd, 2026
In a match-up of Phelps County schools that have touching city limit signs, the numbers don’t matter. Rolla’s population is 5x that of St. James. Rolla is Class 6 while St. James is Class 5. Rolla is ranked #5 in Class 6 with a 15-2 record while St. James isn’t ranked with a 9-5 record. All of those numbers go out the window when the Rolla Bulldogs make the short bus ride to St. James to play in Donati Gymnasium.
The match-up on paper did not represent the game that was played. The Bulldogs, while in control most of the game, could never pull away from the St. James Tigers as every Bulldog run was answered with a Tiger run of their own. The Bulldogs finished with a 64-51 victory to advance to the Championship Game for a rematch with Blair Oaks.
Reflecting on the game, Coach Miller gave a lot of respect to Coach Smith and the Tigers. “Always a great game in St James. Ben Smith teams are always scrappy and play hard. They can shoot it well, they’re gonna win a lot of games this year.”
Classic First Half
Both teams appeared tight in the opening minute as shots didn’t fall and some turnovers. It was St. James that drew first blood as All-District Sr guard Tate Gruver banked in a 3 to give St. James their one and only lead of the game. It was a 2 to 4 point game the entire first quarter until in the closing seconds of the quarter the Bulldogs 6’8” Sr forward channeled his inner Christian Laettner and hit a turnaround jumper from the free throw line with no time on the clock to put the Bulldogs up 16-10.
The battle continued in the second half as the Bulldogs would extend the lead to 7 and the Tigers would bring it back to a one possession game. It was 6’2” Sr guard Jenson Thomas who led the balanced Bulldog offense in the period with 5 points on a 3 pointer and going 2-2 from the line.
The first half finished with another big play by the Bulldog big man, Paxton Ledbetter. After finally getting over the 7 point hump when Thomas hit hit two free throws to extend the lead to 9, the Tigers worked for the final shot and as the Sr guard Aiden Boone got buy his defender and went in for the lay-up, the 6’8” Ledbetter came from the weakside and sent it out of bounds to end the the half with Rolla on top 31-22.
Coach Miller was pleased with the performance of Ledbetter as he has been battling some nagging injuries and some illness as well. “Pax has been sick this week and stepped-up to play very well on both ends.” 6’2” guard Landon Richter again came off the bench to make an impact. “ We got a big spark defensively from Landen Richter taking a couple charges,” commented Miller.
Tigers Won’t Go Away
The Bulldogs started the 2nd half on a 9-3 run to extend the lead to 15 points and it looked like the Bulldogs were on the verge of blowing it wide open. The two teams exchanged buckets throughout the quarter with no real momentum being gained by either team.
An offensive rebound and putback by the Tigers 6.2” senior post player JV Meurer at the 2:30 mark sparked the Tigers to finish out the quarter cutting the deficit to 10 points going into the final period of play.
Bulldogs Close it Out
In classic Bulldog vs Tiger fashion, the two teams continued to battle as the Tigers cut the lead to 8 on a Boone 3 pointer. But the Bulldogs size and length across the board were too much for the Tigers as the Bulldogs limited the second chance points and were able to finish at the rim.
As the Bulldogs stretched the lead back to 10 points, Coach Miller put the ball in the hands of the Illinois signee 6’4” Sr guard Ethan Brown and let him go to work. Brown was able to get the rim and convert the layup or drop it to a teammate as the defense collapsed or forcing them to foul to try and stop him. Brown had 12 in the quarter going 6-7 from the free throw line. “We got it in Ethan’s hands and kept it there going down the stretch and that’s always gonna be difficult for our opponents with the way he handles the ball and shoots free throws.”
Bulldogs defeat St. James 64 to 51 and advance to the Championship game where they have won it the past two years.
The Wrap Up
Rolla was able to get to the free throw line connecting on 12 of 16. 12 of those free throws came in the final quarter as the Bulldogs wore down the Tiger defense. Neither team shot it well from deep. Rolla only hit 4 3 pointers and the Tigers managed 6 with Boone hitting 3 on the evening.
St. James wasn’t able to find success attacking the basket to draw fouls and only managed 4 free throws on the night. Much of that is dictated by the offensive style of the Tigers but also the overall length of the Bulldogs.
Coach Miller was excited to see the balance in the Bulldog scoring as 4 players were in double figures on the evening. Brown finished with a game high 26, while Ledbetter, Thomas and 6’4” Sr guard Cooper Gideon each had 10 points. Gideon continues to find his stroke from deep as he put up 2 more from behind the arc. “Great balance from our guys scoring the basketball.”
Boone scored 13 points with 3 from deep to lead the Tigers. Isaac Smith, a sophomore guard, scored all 11 of his points in the second half to be the other Tiger in double figures.
Next Up - Rematch with Blair Oaks
After suffering their first loss of the year 56-67 at the hands of Blair Oaks, the St. James tournament as been on the players and coaches mind ever since, knowing that there was strong likelihood that the two teams would meet up in the Championship game. “Big game tonight, always fun playing for a tournament championship and against a team that we lost to earlier in the season. Our guys will definitely be motivated tonight.”
The Match-Up
#2 Seed Bulldogs (15-2) take on #1 Seed Blair Oaks (12-1) in Championship Game on Friday at 6:30pm at St. James Middle School.
Last meeting: Dec. 19th at Blair Oaks was a 56-67 loss.
Bulldogs shot under 35% from the field for the game. Committed 14 turnovers and only had 10 assists.
Rematch of last year’s St. James Tournament Championship which Rolla won 67-64 on a 3 point shot by Jenson Thomas at the buzzer.
STATS Rolla 64, St. James 51
The individual scoring (FG-FT-TP):
Rolla (15-2): Thomas 3-3-10, Richter 2-1-6, Gideon 4-0-10, Ledbetter 5-0-10, Brown 9-9-26, Smith 1-0-2
St. James (9-5): Boone 5-0-13, Gruver 2-2-8, Gleason 4-0-9, Smith 4-2-11, O. Spurgeon 1-1-3, Meurer 2-0-4, J. Spurgeon 1-1-3
The score by periods:
TEAM Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 F
Rolla 16 15 17 16 64
St. James 10 12 16 13 51
St. James Tournament Results
Final Tourney Match-Ups - Friday the 23rd at St. James Middle School
Consolation at 3:30pm - Waynesville vs Steelville
3rd Place at 5:00pm - Salem vs St. James
Championship at 6:30pm - Blair Oaks vs Rolla
First Round Tourney Results - Monday the 19th
#1 Blair Oaks - Bye
Semifinal Results - Thursday the 22nd
Steelville defeats Cuba, 45-43
Blair Oaks over Salem, 66 -31
Rolla handles St. James, 64-51
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