Regional champs: Gardewine gets game winner to fall with 3.5 seconds left

By JACK HITTINGER
Daily News
EFFINGHAM — Nick Gardewine didn’t want to go out on a losing note on his home floor.

With 3.5 seconds left in the Class 3A Effingham Regional championship game and the score tied at 48, the Effingham senior had a clear lane and an eye on a title. He drove in, attracting two Charleston defenders who chased him to the hole before getting a soft finger roll to go through the basket.

“It was basically what coach drew up,” Gardewine said. “He told me to get the ball and drive to the hole. He told everybody to spot up, and they cleared the lane for me. My teammates did a great job.”

Gardewine’s athletic move proved to be the game-winner when Charleston’s TJ Bell couldn’t handle the long inbounds pass, and the Hearts topped Charleston 50-48 Friday night to win their own Class 3A regional title — their third in five years. They’ll take on defending Class 3A runners-up Centralia in the Class 3A Carbondale Sectional Tuesday night. The teams have split a pair of meetings this year.

Gardewine scored 11 points — including seven in the fourth quarter — to help lead the Hearts to victory.

“This is awesome,” said Hearts senior guard Curran Walsh, who scored a team-high 18 points, including a key 3-pointer early in the fourth to give the Hearts a boost. “Beating our Apollo (Conference) rivals here on our home floor, it’s our senior year. It’s definitely awesome. The fans were into it. This might be the loudest crowd we’ve ever had.”

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And in the final minute, Hearts fans that packed the EHS gym got to experience the pains of cardiac arrest as well as the thrill of a game-winner.

“I thought Charleston played a whale of a ballgame,” EHS head coach Ron Reed said. “We really had to battle back in the fourth.“

The Chamber — EHS’s student section — stormed the floor when Bell bobbled the ball, but they nearly didn’t get that chance.

The Trojans (10-16) had a four-point lead with a minute and a half to go, but the Hearts (18-11) cut into the lead after Trenton Frey fought Bell for a rebound when Walsh missed a 3 with 1:14 to go.

His putback made it 48-46, and after Reed took a timeout Hunter Keith forced a steal on the inbounds pass and took it in to tie it at 48-all.

Seconds later, Walsh did the same. He picked the pocket of Charleston’s Jordan Hellman and ran it in for a layup.

Or so it seemed.

The ball rolled around the rim once, then twice. Gardewine leaped to tip it in, and down it went. The crowd went nuts, but with all the commotion, it turned out that Gardewine had lept too soon — the referees called offensive goaltending with 56 seconds to go. Charleston ball.

Only, it wasn’t.

Charleston’s Truston Winnett was called for an illegal screen — his fifth foul — not five seconds later, before the Trojans even had the chance to inbound. Effingham ball.

Walsh said he didn’t know what to think when the refs waved off the bucket.

“I got the steal, and I’m like, ‘This is exactly what we needed,’” he said. “Then it goes out, and I see Nick go up. And they call the goaltend. I was a bit stunned. But then we got the illegal screen and that kinda cancelled it out.”

Gardewine, too, said that it was a quick range of emotions in that moment.

“Basically on that play, I was trying to get the ball in the hole,” he said. “But that’s the ref’s call in the end. That would have been a big momentum breaker (for us) right there, but it goes either way, and we fought through it.”

Effingham had more than 50 seconds and a timeout left to work with. The Hearts held the ball until there were 12 ticks remaining to draw up the final play.

“The kids did a real good job of controlling the ball until the last 12.7,” Reed said. “We got the ball in Nick’s hands, were able to spread them out along the baseline and we got a real nice play to take it in.”

Charleston controlled the game in the early-goings, taking a 13-8 lead in the first quarter. Bell, who finished with 13 points, helped the Trojans dominate on the glass, too. He grabbed eight boards and the Trojans outrebounded the Hearts 12-2 in the first quarter.

But the Hearts rallied in the second quarter behind Walsh and Frey. Walsh drained two-consecutive 3s from NBA range — in the exact same spot on the floor — early in the second to help tie the game at 14-all. Frey scored four of his nine total points in the game and it was 22-all at the break.

“At halftime coach was emphasizing that we had to box out,” said Gardewine, who sat for much of the first half with two fouls. “But when you have a guy that’s 6-foot-8 (Bell) and our tallest guy is 6-5, it’s kinda hard to do. (Bell) can get over us a lot easier.

“But Jake (Stombaugh) did a great job at not letting him get the ball (in the second half), and Clark (Williamson) did a great job, too.”

Bell only scored six points after halftime, and although the Trojans led by as many as six in the fourth quarter, the Hearts were able to rally and win.

“It means a lot, and it means even more to have a regional championship on our home floor,” Gardewine said.

Reed echoed Gardewine’s statement.

“I was glad to see (Nick) and Curran finish their careers here on this court with a neat ballgame,” he said.

The Hearts take on Centralia, a team they are 1-1 against this year, Tuesday in the Carbondale Sectional semifinal. Although the Orphans, who beat Mount Vernon 22-15 Friday night in a defensive struggle, are the defending Class 3A runners-up, Walsh said the Hearts would be ready for them.

“They’re a very great team,” he said of Centralia (17-12). “But we played them twice already, lost once and beat them once. So we know we can beat them. We’re not going in scared.”