Van-Far couldn’t run with Hallsville on Thursday night.

The Indians lost 53-20 to the Centralia tournament No. 1 seed after initially falling into a deep hole with a 20-0 Hallsville run. Van-Far lost its first game following two previous victories. 

It was a late start to the basketball season for Van-Far (2-1). Head coach Pat Connaway has grown accustomed to having a mostly football roster who aren’t quite physically ready to start basketball season, but this year’s Indians waited even longer for tipoff after winning a district championship. Connaway said he is happy for all they accomplished, but becoming conditioned for basketball takes time.

Van-Far vs Hallsville Photo Gallery

“We were tired from the get-go,” Connaway said. “With football lasting so long, we are nowhere near shape. We were tired a minute and a half into the game tonight.”

Further context compounds the conditioning issues, Connaway said, as Van-Far had its greatest test in a speedy Hallsville team, which was led by Tatum Braman’s 19 points and Keilin Dorman’s 18 points. In the first round on Tuesday, the Indians won a 55-47 “dogfight” against Centralia. About a week before that, Van-Far needed overtime to win its season opener 63-59 at Eastern Missouri Conference opener at Louisiana.

Connaway said the Indians need their legs and conditioning to “be who we want to be.” He said playing teams like Hallsville (3-1) and entering a tough tournament like the Centralia tournament is beneficial, but this also means the schedule is even more loaded, resulting in less practice time.

“Practice is going to have to turn into track in order to get where we need to be,” Connaway said. “We’re not the deepest team in the world, and we start making bad fouls when we’re tired.”

Van-Far made some bad fouls against Hallsville, Connaway said. Hallsville also wasn’t afraid to initiate contact with Van-Far whenever Van-Far had the ball.

While Connaway said Van-Far has more strength and could be more physical than Hallsville, he said the team didn’t effectively use this advantage when it took bad shots to prematurely end possessions.

“The gaps close quickly,” Connaway said. “We’re just one to two dribbles too slow to try to get to the rim against a team like that. They were too quick and tested it.”

Connaway said Pacey Reading has played point guard in certain situations while Gaven Gaston has recovered from a hamstring injury from the end of football season. 

Reading has started the season well, despite leading Van-Far with 11 points against Hallsville. He scored 25 points at Louisiana and then dropped 34 points and a career-high nine 3-pointers on Centralia.

“He’s going to have to go in order for us to be good,” Connaway said. “Ideally, we’ll get Gaven, Evan (Utterback) and a couple of kids in double figures to help out.”

Van-Far plays Salisbury (2-1) at 6:30 p.m. Saturday for third place. Regardless of the result, it will be Van-Far’s best finish in the Centralia tournament after losing in the first round the last several years. The Indians usually lost that first-round game to Centralia but were able to advance to the championship bracket this time to hopefully follow last year’s 79-50 victory against Salisbury in the tournament.

“(Friday) is going to be about us working hard and then we’ll worry about Salisbury on Saturday,” Connaway said.