Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics. Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors. Duke Blue Devils and North Carolina Tar Heels. Any basketball fan would attach one word to these phrases: rivalry. There’s nothing better than two teams going back and forth in a battle spanning generations. At MVTHS, the team that fits this description is none other than the Centralia Orphans. Every time these two teams meet on the court, a great competitive game almost always results. Friday night was no exception.

The Mt. Vernon Rams successfully defended their perfect South Seven conference record with a 62-57 victory over the Centralia Orphans (5-4, 1-2) on Friday. The win pushed MV’s win streak to 6, and was the closest of those consecutive contests.

The Rams were led with dominating scoring performances by Weston Brockhouse, ’19 and Amir Spann, ’20, who had 26 and 20 points respectively. They were aided by a 10 point showing from Simon Wilson, ’20, and three points each from Jackson Creel, ’20 and Luke Cooper, ’19.

As has been the case in recent affairs, the Rams came out of the gate hot, possessing a 21-7 advantage midway through the second period. Mt. Vernon pushed their lead to 16 before three Centralia layups in the final 2 minutes of the half yielded a halftime score of 26-16 in favor of Mt. Vernon, whose Brockhouse nearly outscored the entirety of Centralia’s squad with 14 points in the first half.

Out of the locker room, the Orphans stormed back. Centralia went on a 10-2 run to bring the deficit to 2 points. However, the Rams responded with a 13-2 run of their own to seemingly put the game out of reach. In any other game, it may have been decided then, but, as in the most chapters of the historic MV-Centralia rivalry, the score isn’t settled until the final buzzer.

The final quarter saw both teams trade points; Centralia from quick, long-range shots, and Mt. Vernon from free throws as the Orphans intentionally fouled throughout the period. The Rams, who struggled at the line all night, managed to hold off the Centralia Orphans for the first time in over a year after dropping four games to them in 2017-18.

The Rams improve to 8-1, 3-0 in South Seven play. They will face Monroe City (MO) on Saturday, December 15th in a shootout hosted at Webster Groves High School in Missouri. Tip off is scheduled for 1:00 pm.