After a heartbreaking 57-56 loss to Antioch in the Class 3A Antioch Regional title game on Friday, March 4, the Carmel boys basketball team sat inside its locker room for more than a half hour.
During that time, the players reflected upon what might have been.
“Emotions were definitely running high in our locker room,” said senior C.J. Duff, who plans to play for Western Illinois after he graduates. “That was one of the most difficult 30 minutes I’ve ever gone through, being around those guys one final time as a group.”
Carmel, the No. 3 seed in the regional, went down with a fight. After falling behind by nine points at the end of the first quarter and as many as 11 in the second, the Corsairs chipped away at an eighth-seeded Antioch squad that played one of its most complete, determined games of the season. The Sequoits took 15 more shots than Carmel, thanks in part to their 15-6 edge in offensive rebounds.
After the Corsairs (13-18) rallied to take a late second-quarter lead, there were eight lead changes, including seven in the second half. But no lead change was bigger than a pair of consecutive possessions with less than two minutes left in the game.
Trailing 51-50, Sequoits senior guard Trevor Koch buried a three that spun its way into the net with 1:48 remaining, giving his team the lead for good. On the ensuing inbounds play, Koch stole a pass, then raced to the basket for an easy layup with 1:43 to go for a four-point Antioch lead. It was Antioch’s biggest lead the entire second half. The Corsairs couldn’t recover, though they did cut the lead to one on a layup with less than five seconds to play.
Duff finished with a game-high 25 points while 6-foot-4 Carmel freshman Jonathan Roeser had 22 points and eight rebounds in just his second postseason game. The duo scored 47 of the Corsairs’ 56 points.
“We have a lot of young guys on this team, and we’re all hungry,” Roeser said. “We don’t want this to happen again, or to have this feeling again. We’re gonna work our butts off this summer. I really want to thank the seniors on this team (Duff, Sean Foster and Matthew Stevens) for all their hard work, and for setting such a tremendous example for us.”
After the loss, Carmel coach Zack Ryan praised his players for battling through all the adversity they faced.
“In December, we had five players on our roster dismissed from our team,” Ryan said. “That wasn’t easy for our remaining players to overcome. We had to call up a sophomore point guard, Zion Kilpatrick, who wound up breaking his ankle two weeks ago. But none of our guys made excuses. We started two freshmen tonight. One of them, Jonathan, has a future ahead of him that’s unbelievably bright, and (he) will be a cornerstone for us moving forward.
“Going into tonight, we only had four guys playing on our roster that were on our original roster to start the year. And yet here we were fighting to the final possession in a regional championship game. That speaks volumes about the character of this group.”
Tim Froehlig is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
Twitter: @TFroehlig