Asher Jackson sat in disbelief on Carmel’s bench following the thrill ride that was the second semifinal of the Class 3A North Chicago Sectional.
“This one is going to hurt for a while,” he said.
Fifth-seeded Carmel lost 71-68 to second-seeded St. Patrick in the third overtime Wednesday night despite the 6-foot-5 senior guard’s 27 points and 10 rebounds.
“I’m so proud of my teammates, from everyone on the bench to our entire crowd,” Jackson said. “We put everything we had out there, but it just didn’t go our way at the end.”
The Shamrocks (22-10), who will play top-seeded Lake Forest (27-6) in the sectional championship game at 7 p.m. Friday, had a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter before their East Suburban Catholic Conference rival Corsairs (23-12) mounted a comeback.
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Carmel junior guard James Dwyer, who finished with 10 points, knocked down several clutch shots in the fourth quarter.
Senior guard Bryce Moore, a Niagara recruit who scored all of his 18 points after halftime, completed the Corsairs’ rally with a backdoor cut to the basket to tie the game at 53-53 with 14 seconds left in regulation.
“I know the kind of players we have, so I knew that we were not going to quit,” Carmel coach Zack Ryan said. “We made some big plays defensively and then made some big shots.”
Neither team could make much headway in the first two four-minute overtimes, but the Shamrocks outscored Carmel 7-4 in the third OT. Senior guard/forward Andrew Ayeni hit a big 3-pointer for St. Patrick.
“It was a great high school game between two conference teams,” Ryan said. “It came down to a missed basket or a missed free throw here or there for someone to eventually win the game. I feel bad for our seniors because they have been through a lot these past few years. They gave it all they had.”
One of those seniors is Jackson, who is weighing his options for playing college basketball.
“I know this program will continue to be successful because we had a lot of underclassmen who made big contributions this season,” he said.
Among those younger players is Jackson’s brother Kaleb, a sophomore guard who was on the floor for key minutes down the stretch.
“I’m so proud of him,” Asher Jackson. “We needed him, especially on offense in this game, and he came through.”
Jackson and Moore came through for Carmel one last time.
“Asher and Bryce have been doing big things for us all season, so it’s no surprise that we leaned on them in this game,” Ryan said.
Darren Day is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.