Two weeks has made a difference for the Van-Far boys.

After finishing their Tony Lenzini Tournament in Palmyra with two losses, the Indians extended their win streak to four games with a 69-30 victory over Class 2 District 5 foe Paris (14-7) on Wednesday night at home. Van-Far (14-7) nailed 10 3-pointers one night after hitting 10 from deep in a 56-48 win at Eastern Missouri Conference foe Montgomery County.

Van-Far head coach Pat Connaway said the hot shooting has been there, but he is most pleased with the differences in defense. Van-Far has the same record as Paris and started pulling away in the second quarter in what Connaway called the team’s “most complete game.”

Paris at Van-Far Photo Gallery

“We defended basically every possession,” Connaway said. “We’ve been gambling too much. We’ve been preaching to wall up, don’t try to block shots and don’t get in foul trouble but contest and pull boards. We were also preaching to stay in front.”

Van-Far staying ahead on defense allowed the Indians to stay comfortably ahead all night. Connaway said this wasn’t an easy assignment, either, as Paris is an athletic team and had as much motivation to win for the sake of district seeding. 

Paris head coach Jeremy Skinner said Van-Far was “on fire” and hit most of the open shots it had. Skinner said the Coyotes didn’t help themselves by not attacking Van-Far’s defense properly and didn’t show ball movement until the second half. 

“We tried to do too much one-on-one versus a great defense that’s got good help side,” Skinner said. “One-on-one became one-on-three. In the first half, we didn’t realize that in time.”

Unlike the Montgomery County game, Connaway said Van-Far did better bringing help defense to take away backdoor scoring opportunities against Paris. The hot shooting was there for both games, however.

Pacey Reading led Van-Far with 18 points, seven rebounds and three steals, Gibson Condie followed with 16 points and four 3-pointers, and Evan Utterback had 12 points. Cayden Poddany and Spencer Minks each had seven points for Paris.

Van-Far’s leading scorer Reading only needed to score two points in the first quarter for the Indians to jump ahead 15-5, and three other Indians each hit a 3-pointer in the quarter.

“(Pacey) passed the ball tonight and saw things better than he probably ever has,” Connaway said. “That’s big because that will make his life easier. The more our others get involved in scoring, the less junk and things like that he sees.”

Condie has the frame to be a threat down low, but Connaway said he’s a big threat from the perimeter. 

“(Condie) is one of the best shooters in the conference,” Connaway said. “It’s just getting his legs underneath him.”

Skinner said it’s better to “lay an egg” before districts, and it’s possible Paris could meet Van-Far again in the postseason. Paris has defeated other teams in its district like Louisiana and Silex, who each are in Van-Far’s conference, and Skinner believes there are five “really good teams” in the district.

After five straight losing seasons, Paris has clinched a winning season and has a mix of a senior core that Skinner said he has coached since third grade. There is also younger talent who have contributed much this season like the freshman Minks and sophomore Anthony Levings.

“We’ve got quite a few guys who can score,” Skinner said. “We’ve got more length than we’ve had in a while. Adding a couple 6-foot-2 guys on the court helps us. We’re a lot bigger. We’re used to a bunch of little guys running around.”

As districts draws closer, Connaway said that is usually when Van-Far is playing its best, and there were signs of that on Wednesday. 

“We’re trending the right way,” Connaway said. “History, that’s where we’ve been. We normally play better as the year goes on. The kids were worn out and were in football mode, and now they have their second wind.”