TROY – Civic Memorial’s Brett Lane actually wasn’t supposed to take the final shot in the Eagles’ last-second nail-biter against Mascoutah in an opening-round contest of the IHSA Class 3A Triad Regional Monday night.
The Eagles, who got the ball after an Indian turnover with 7.5 seconds left, designed a play to actually get the ball into the hands of Jaxsen Helmkamp. Things didn’t exactly work out as planned, but Lane put up a soft jumper in the paint as the clock wound down to zero.
Lane’s shot hit the bottom of the net as the buzzer sounded to give the Eagles a 51-49 win over their Mississippi Valley Conference rivals and sent them into a Tuesday night regional semifinal game against top-ranked Belleville Althoff, set to begin at 7 p.m.
“It’s survive and advance at this point,” said CM coach Doug Carey. “We gotta give Brett a lot of credit; he stepped up, got a big offensive rebound, knocked down two big free throws, he got a steal somewhere along that line and made that last shot, so seniors stepped up and made plays at the end.”
“Actually, the play wasn’t designed for me to shoot it, either,” Lane said. “Jaxsen was supposed to shoot it and get a layup, but they came out in a zone, and we weren’t ready for that. But we adjusted pretty well, seemed like.”
That the Eagles came roaring back to get the win didn’t seem possible early on; Carey pulled all but one of his starting lineup early on after the Eagles fell behind early 10-3 and had turned the ball over three times. “The starters were pretty bad to start the half,” Carey said. “I couldn’t take much more of it, so I put four guys in – almost put five guys in – and they did a real good job of getting us back in the game; they fought, made a couple of shots, got a few stops – give them lots of credit.”
Carey’s move seemed to light a fire under the starters as well. “I wasn’t very happy either when he took us out that early,” Lane said. “It motivated us; we were talking about it on the bench a little bit, me and my brother (David Lane).”
The Eagles came back from the mass benching and got to a 13-12 quarter time lead on the Indians, then extended it a bit to 24-20 at the long break. It remained close throughout the second half, the Eagles clinging to a 35-34 lead at three-quarter time and getting a bit of breathing room when Lane hit a three-pointer early in the final term. Mascoutah manged to forge a couple of ties down the stretch but Lane hit off a rebound with 53.8 seconds left to get the game even at 49-49, setting up the final sequence.
The Indians called time out with 30.3 seconds to set up a play, but were called for traveling with 7.5 seconds left, prompting a time out for the Eagles to set up the final play.
The ball found its way into Lane’s hands and, just below the free throw line, Lane elected to fire a shot just as time was running out. He let it go just before the buzzer sounded and it floated its way into the bottom of the goal to send the Eagles and their supporters into a frenzy.
“Coach called time out, and we were pumped up,” Lane said. “We were walking over and I said to Adam (Hill) ‘hey, give me the ball on this next one’.
“Coach didn’t call that last play, but it ended up working out in the end.”
And the win put the Eagles into a Tuesday night game against top-seeded and top-ranked Althoff, which prompted Carey to joke “we get the University of Althoff” next.
Lane led the Eagles with 17 points, with Hill adding seven and Justin Williams, Helmkamp and Cameron Gerhardt each scoring five. The Indians were led by Ethan Mayberry and Dom Johnson with 13 points each, with Blake Weis getting 12.
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