LAFAYETTE — An injured ankle meant that Marquette’s Colin Kenney needed help getting off the court following Saturday’s Class 3A Lafayette Jefferson Semistate game.
If Kenney’s final shot had been a little different, he might have left on his teammates’ shoulders.
The 5-foot-8 sophomore guard led a frantic overtime comeback by the Blazers that fell just short, with a 30-footer rimming out as time expired, giving Frankton a 77-75 victory.
“It felt good,” Kenney said. “I guess it was just too far out. Once I hit the floor, I saw it hit the other side of the rim and bounce out.”
With four seconds left in overtime, Kenney took an inbound pass near his own basket for Marquette (19-11), split a double-team by Frankton (22-6) and then launched the potential winning shot that was off the mark.
“We got exactly what we wanted,” Marquette coach Donovan Garletts said of the final play.
Kenney left the building on crutches after rolling his right ankle just before the shot, with Garletts saying the ankle was “the size of a baseball.”
A 3-pointer and a layup from Kenney in the final minute kept the Blazers within striking distance after Marquette fel behind 74-69 with 55 seconds left in OT.
“In overtime, we told him that we need him to go and he went,” Garletts said of Kenney. “It’s really good for a sophomore to come out and play like that on a big stage.”
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Kenney finished with a team-high 24 points and was also crucial in forcing OT. His driving layup near the end of regulation forced a 65-65 tie.
“He made shot after shot,” Frankton coach Brent Brobston said of Kenney. “He was hard to stop and created so much offense for everyone else.”
Marquette started on fire, building a 20-8 lead after one quarter thanks to six points apiece from Kenney and junior Buddy Jaffee.
Over the next two quarters, though, Frankton outscored Marquette 44-27 and led by seven midway through the fourth quarter before Marquette rallied to bring on OT. Maurice Knight did most of Frankton’s damage, leading all scorers with 35 points.
But it wasn’t Knight’s big game that gnawed at Garletts afteward — it was his team’s performance at the free-throw line, where the Blazers shot only 38.5 percent (5-for-13).
“Free throws caught up to us,” he said. “We’ve been struggling from the free-throw line. Under 50 percent isn’t going to get it done in the Final Four of the state tournament. If we hit half of those, we win this game.”
Still, the Blazers could find positives in a season that surpassed expectations.
“The first thought, when someone says ‘good season’ is that you’re going to be upset,” Jaffee said. “But no one in their right mind expected us to go this far. When you look back on it, we did something that no one believed could be done except for us.”
Dave Melton is a freelance writer for the Post-Tribune.