Van-Far Thumps Elsberry In District Title Matchup

The Van-Far Indians slowed the pace, frustrated Elsberry and cruised to their second straight district championship with a 40-22 win on Friday night.
The repeat title sets up a rematch with undefeated Milan in the MSHSAA Class 2 Sectional at Hannibal on Wednesday night.
The Indians opened the game with three pointers from Caden Wilburn and Verdell Johnson for an 8-2 lead after a quarter.
Johnson had five points from Van-Far in the quarter.
More three balls went down for the Indians in the second quarter when Collin Wilburn, Caden and Sam Middleton all stepped out for scores to extend the Van-Far advantage to 17-6 at the break.
The Indians defense was the real star, holding Elsberry to just ten points through three quarters and just three baskets from the field.
Caden Wilburn scored another three in the third and Middleton drained his second trey while Trey Miller and Verlynn Johnson notched their first points of the game in the quarter.
Van-Far led 27-10 entering the final eight minutes.
Elsberry senior Derrick Taylor broke through for seven points in the fourth, but Van-Far still outscored the host team 13-11 over the last eight minutes by converting 11 of 15 free-throws.
Caden Wilburn drained three from behind the line and led the scoring to earn the Community State Bank/TribCast Player of the Game.
Scoring for Van-Far: Caden Wilburn, 15 points; Verdell Johnson, 9 points; Sam Middleton, 6 points; Trey Miller, 5 points; Collin Wilburn, 3 points; Verlynn Johnson, 2 points.
The match-up with Milan will tip on Wednesday at 6:00 PM on TribCast with pre-game beginning at 5:40 PM.

The teams met last season in the quarterfinal round as Van-Far came from ten down in the fourth to force overtime, eventually beating the Wildcats 53-49 to advance to the Show-Me Showdown.