SPRINGFIELD – Both Nolan Keller and Tyler Thompson led Triad with 13 points each, but a spinning reverse lay-up by Jonathan Helm with 2.2 seconds left in regulation gave Chatham Glenwood a 43-41 win over the Knights in the IHSA Class 3A super-sectional state quarterfinal game Monday night, March 10, 2025, at the Bank of Springfield Center in Springfield.
The loss ended the Knights’ most successful season ever at 29-7, while the Titans improved to 24-9 and into the state finals this weekend at State Farm Center in Champaign-Urbana. The loss still doesn’t take away the great season Triad enjoyed.
“It was a great game,” said Triad head coach Jeff Guidry. “I mean, there’s no question about it. Each team battled and battled, and responded to each other. We knew it was probably going to come down to the end, we didn’t think it was going to be a big lead either way in this game. You’ve got two really, really good defensive teams battling it out, and when you get to this stage, everybody’s obviously really good. So, it’s disappointing, but there shouldn’t be any sorrow, really just joy. It’s what I told the kids. We’ve done something that nobody in the school’s history has ever done, and that’s to get to this game.”
Triad did everything they could defensively on the final play, and was concerned about Cameron Appenzeller on the play, but he made the pass to Helm that allowed him to score the game-winner.
“We were really concerned about (Appenzeller),” Guidry said. “Obviously, he hit a couple of big shots. We kind of went at him a little too early. We had a foul to give, I think, and we didn’t foul him early enough, and therefore, he kind of went up, saw that we were going to foul, he hit the guy, and the basket.”
Being in a close game was nothing new to the Titans, and they used their experience in the close games to take the win.
“Oh, outstanding,” said Glenwood head coach Todd Blakeman. “This has been one heck of a run for us. We’ve been in seven overtime games. We’ve been in a lot of these close games, but the be able to score like that with two seconds on the clock. Just proud of our kids, they‘re competitors. There’s no quit in them at all, we played good defense, played good offense, hit some timely shots. I started questioning them when they were hitting a bunch of threes, we had to get that stopped. But other than that, I thought we did a great job, made some great calls late on defense, some guys jumped out on some shooters, and we had the ball at the end. That’s what we did, and fortunate to win.”
Both sides battled the entire game, much to their credit, and Blakeman knew that Triad would not be an easy opponent.
“Yeah, no doubt,” Blakeman said. “I’ll tell you what, Triad, we knew they were coming in, I knew they were strong, I knew they were physical. I watched the film on them, I watched a ton of film, and I just knew, they battle and stuff. We got a lot of stuff we wanted, we missed a lot of shots, too, shooting threes early. But, they hit them, and that was big. But, I’ll tell you, Triad is a tough team, they had a heck of a run themselves.”
The Titans jumped to an early 6-3 lead to start the game, which later saw the Knights tie the game 8-9 on a three, Mason Neumann and Appenzeller scored late in the period to put Glenwood up 12-8, but a basket by Thompson cut the lead to 12-10 at the end of the period. In the second quarter, the Knights tied the game again 12-12 on a basket by Nolan Keller, but the Titans got to free throws by Gavin Simmons, and a three to take a 17-12 lead. Later on, Keller knocked down a three to make it 18-15, and after Glenwood extended its lead to 23-17, Winslow hit a floater in the lane to cut the Titan lead to 23-19 at halftime.
The Knights kept battling in the third, coming to within 25-24 on a three by Thompson, then forging a 27-27 tie on another three by Mac Musgrave. Helm scored late to give Glenwood a 29-27 lead after the third, and in the fourth, the teams exchanged threes that put the Titans up 35-32, A free throw and a basket by Winslow tied the game for Triad at 35-35 with 3:50 left in regulation, and Stewart hit a clutch three to tie the game again at 38-38 with1:51 left. Appenzeller and Thompson both hit threes to keep the game tied at 41-41 late, and afterward, Helm hit his spinning lay-in with 2.2 seconds to go to give the Titans a 43-41 lead. The Knights called time out immediately, and the officials put 1.8 seconds back on the clock, but the midcourt hot fell way short. Allowing the Titans to take the win and advance to state.
Appenzeller led the Titans with 18 points, while Neumann and Helm had nine points each, Jack Kurmann had three points, and both Simmons and Matt Held scored two points apiece. Both Keller and Thompson had 13 points each to lead the Knights, while Winslow had nine points, and Stewart scored six points.
Triad’s season ends at 29-7, while Glenwood goes to 24-9, and will play Chicago DePaul College Prep Catholic, who won the Hoffman Estates NOW Arena super-sectional over Maple Park Kaneland 68-28, in the second semifinal game Thursday night at 8:15 p.m. The third-place game Is set for Friday at 1 p.m., and the final will be played Saturday night at 6 p.m.
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
