The Van-Far boys are off to a quick start this season and were quick throughout Saturday’s game.

Van-Far vs Salisbury Photo Gallery

The Indians finished the Centralia Invitational consolation final with a season-high 80 points and an 80-50 victory over Salisbury. This is the second straight year Van-Far has earned the consolation prize at the Centralia tournament.

Head coach Pat Connaway said Van-Far (8-1) wanted to win at least games this week in a tournament field with bigger schools. The Indians’ consolation final opponent Salisbury (2-3) was the only other Class 2 school, and Connaway wanted his team to play at a good pace against the Panthers.

“We’ve talked about tempo,” Connaway said. “That’s why we came out and pressured. We weren’t very good at it, but at least we got the tempo we wanted. We had ball movement, shot the ball with confidence knocking down 3s and we got the ball in the paint.”

Van-Far had seven 3-pointers at halftime, when it led 42-29. The Indians finished with 10 3-pointers.

“We were very active tonight,” Connaway said. “That’s what we need to do because a lot of teams are trying to slow us down and play zone. We need to show we can punish that.”

Pacey Reading led the Indians with 24 points and eight rebounds and had three 3-pointers. Carson Huff followed with 19 points but nailed a team-high five 3-pointers, and Gaven Gaston had 13 points and eight assists.

Huff hit four 3-pointers on Tuesday in Van-Far’s 58-57 last-second loss to Centralia in the first round. Gaston regularly found teammates scoring opportunities but also used his speed to score in transition. 

“We showed our film the day before we came,” Connaway said about Huff, who made the all-tournament team with an average of 16.3 points in the three games. “He was passing up shots when he’s open. When hit feet are set, he’s got a pretty shot and can stretch that defense out.

“He’s the only one that can put the pressure on people,” Connaway said about Gaston. “He did a good job at getting to the rim and making some extra passes.”

Van-Far had scoring balance reminiscent of Thursday’s 57-43 win over Macon. Four Indians scored in double figures, led by Evan Utterback’s 15 points and followed by a respective 14, 13 and 12 from Huff, Reading and Gaston. Utterback came close to joining them again in double figures this time with nine points.

“We need that balance,” Connaway said. “That’s getting back to our older teams that had success. You’ve got to have kids that can score. The more we can find, the less they can key on Pacey and the less they can shift on Carson.”

Salisbury had one all-tournament team member as well in Jake Peiffer. He led the Panthers with 14 points but only had two points in the second half. In Salisbury’s recent game, a 44-36 victory over North Callaway on Thursday, Peiffer had 20 points.

Van-Far only led 18-15 at the end of the first quarter but started pulling away in the second quarter. Connaway said Salisbury couldn’t be allowed to score as quickly.

“We kept getting caught up on the screens,” Connaway said. “We were taking away the double cuts, but we were getting lost coming to the top. We finally said switch it and got off the ball better. We took their first look away and made things a little tougher.”

Van-Far plays at Eastern Missouri Conference foe Silex (1-3) at 7:30 p.m. today.