40-22, it wasn’t even close. STUCO never stood a chance. A demolition, an expedition, whatever you’re gonna call it, Prep News easily won against STUCO at this year's annual Prep News vs STUCO basketball game. Held on Feb. 22 in the Danis Field House, the stands were packed with students and teachers excited to see the biggest rivalry in St. Louis. 

Leading up to the game, both STUCO and Prep News built the hype for the game as a legendary opener for the Mission Week. 

“I think the video that STUCO made on Monday, Presidents Day, I thought was very funny. When the video was released on that evening I was like, alright, this is real, we're actually getting into it. And when I had my shirt off and channeled my inner AJ Thompson, it was really kind of just like, Wow, all right, we’re actually going to do this now. And it was awesome. It was also great because I think in the SLUH community, you’re either STUCO or you’re Prep News,” said STUCO Spirit leader Matthew Kluba.

Though Monday was a dress down day, both STUCO and Prep News dressed up in formal attire for game day. 

After lunch, both teams headed to the Field House to check out the court and their locker rooms. As the stands were filling up with students, it was hard not to feel the pre-match jitters in warmups. 

“I've never played a basketball game at SLUH before, I only played in grade school. So I never had an actual basketball game that I played in front of a big crowd before. And I was just like, man, this is intense,” said Kluba. “I was worried every shot that I put up everybody would heckle me and stuff like that. So there were definitely some pre-game jitters.”

As players hit their last few warmup shots, they jogged to the line to have each time be announced by Fr. Matthew Stewart, SJ. As well as announcing the teams, Stewart also sang an impeccable national anthem that left everyone energized and ready for tip off. 

“I think it might have been that morning, actually when the STUCO guys and the Prep News guys were like, hey, you're gonna announce our starting lineups, right? And I was like, okay, sure. And so then during the junior pastoral team leadership meeting is when we came up with those names, like  Jack Figge, a man who taught Jesus the Our Father, that kind of stuff that kind of came together that morning, basically,” said Stewart. “And then the national anthem, I've sung the national anthem so many times, that it was just one of those things where it's like, Alright, here we go again.”

Following the anthem, STUCO and Prep News sent their starting five out onto the court with President AJ Thompson and editor in chief Jack Figge gathered in the tipoff circle as the refs, juniors Zach Ortwerth and Daniel Tice made their final checks. 

The Prep News won the tipoff and went down and scored on the first possession, marking the beginning of a long afternoon for STUCO. 

As the game went back and forth, Prep News built themselves a pretty 20-5 lead heading into halftime. 

“Going into halftime, we had a pretty hefty lead, but I told all the guys in the locker room to keep their foot on the gas because STUCO will come out swinging. That’s exactly what we did and we were able to win in landslide fashion,” said the people’s MVP senior Coby Spratte.

Coming out into the second half, STUCO turned it on quickly and scored 7 quick points, making it 20-12. That was the last push STUCO made all game as Prep News pulled away further in the second half, thanks largely to Spratte’s big game. Spratte alone outscored the entirety of STUCO.. 

“I knew Coby was good, but I was surprised at how good Coby was,” said game commentator and English teacher Adam Cruz. “The crowd chanting MVP at Coby Spratte after he made a couple of shots was also pretty cool.” 

“As a team, I expected us to play a pretty evenly matched game with STUCO, but even I didn’t see that much of a slaughter coming,” said Spratte. “As an individual, I dropped 49 between my last two games for the Rim Runners Elite in CYC, so I was pretty hot coming into the game, but I think I still surpassed my own expectations.”

Finishing 40-22, Prep News even put in Nathan Rich at the end of the game. Still in formal attire, Rich finished the game with 3 turnovers and a missed layup, all while being on the court for only the final 30 seconds of the game. 

Even though the score line wasn’t close, it was still a very entertaining game for all the fans.

“Yeah it was a very interesting game. The first half was kind of back and forth. Coby went off, Louis was not very good. And then in the second half the gap was just so big it was amusing to see people mess around, because the game was over at that point,” said senior Nico Schmidt.

The game was commentated over by the much-loved “‘the coach and the collar” duo of Stewart and Cruz. 

“It was Fr. Stewart and I, the coach and the collar, because last year it was Mr. Mohr. It was really fun. I mean, it's always really fun, you’ll hear on the telecast. No offense to Mr. Mohr but Fr. Stewart had a lot more basketball knowledge than Mr.Mohr did, and Fr. Stewart had, perhaps because of his dating history, perhaps because of his SLUH history, he had a lot of good color commentary to provide,” said Cruz. 

“It was fun though because Cruz is just a mile a minute. You know, he’s so good at play by play. I was more of a color commentator. But we're throwing shade at Corley and Missey and Archie Carruthers. It was just good-natured fun,” said Stewart. 

Overall, this year’s Prep News vs STUCO basketball game was one to remember for all participants, win or lose it's something that everyone looks forward to all year.

“When people think of the greatest group at SLUH, they of course think of Student Council and rightfully so. When people think of the most overhyped and shady group at SLUH, they think of Prep News and rightfully so. Because of this, a rivalry has begun to brew between the two groups, probably to two groups who have the most power. What better way to settle this beef than with a good old fashioned game of basketball? Unfortunately, Prep News came to play this year. They were not messing around. My guys put up a good fight but in the end could not pull off the comeback. I am proud of the effort and I look forward to seeing the rivalry grow even deeper,” said STUCO president AJ Thompson.