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CARROLLTON - The Carrollton Hawks fanbase had a roughly 10-to-15 minute drive to North Greene High School, while the Gibault Catholic Hawks fanbase drove, rougly an hour and a half from Waterloo.
Carrollton had a homecourt atmosphere advantage, but on the court they had a distinct size disadvantage against Gibault.
Six-foot, three-inch Trevor Davis poured in 21 points and fellow forward Brian Deterding at six-foot, five-inches, added 14 to lead Gibault to a 69-50 victory on Tuesday night.
The Hawks advance to the North Greene Sectional Finals on Friday at 7 p.m. against either Okawville or Pawnee.
“They just got so many weapons,” Carrollton head coach Jeff Krumwiede said. “They’re really good and we knew if we didn’t defensive rebound their misses then we would be in trouble.”
“They were quick, big, long, they shot the ball well,” Luke Gillingham said. “We were just outmatched, outsized. They were just better than us.”
Gillingham, wore No. 14 on his jersey, scored 14 points in his final Carrollton appearance.
“It was a better way to go out than playing terrible I guess. So I guess I didn’t play too bad,” Gillingham said with a laugh. “I would’ve played terrible and taken a win any day.”
Jeremy Watson added eight and Jerrett Smith had five points.
Cole Brannan, a four-year starter, ended his final game for Carrollton with four points.
After Gibault opened the scoring on the first possession of the game, Gillingham hit a three-pointer to give Carrollton their only lead at 3-2.
Though Carrollton took their time on offense, it didn’t lead to much production for most of the first quarter.
“Our game plan was pretty obvious,” Krumwiede said. “We wanted to win every minute tie whatever minute we could tie, and win whatever minute we could win. We figured if we held the ball for 50 seconds and they only got it for 10 [seconds], then we’d have a chance. The problem was some of those 50 seconds were turnovers, and they dunked it within 5 [seconds], or scored within 10.
Gibault went on a 9-0 run, which included a transition dunk by Davis.
Davis was five for seven from the field and 11-13 at the free throw line.
Late in the quarter Gibault went out of their 3-2 zone to a man-to-man, which Carrollton benefited from and trailed 12-7 going into the second quarter.
Gillingham started the second frame off with another trey and then a bucket by Jeremy Watson knotted it up at 12.
It was a 9-0 Carrollton run.
During that phase Gibault failed to knock down open three-pointers and close-range shots at the basket.
Gibault’s Jacob Rueter broke the scoring drought with a crucial triple to get the lead back at 15-12, which lit a spark.
Rueter finished with 8 points.
Even though they were down by three, Krumwiede was content being down one possession and wanted to hold onto it.
“During the timeout I said if we can figure out a way to just be down three at the half I said that’s not bad lets take that,” Krumwiede said,” And all of a sudden it exploded on us.”
Gibault closed out the half with a 12-2 run and it ended when Davis was fouled at half-court, while shooting a desperation shot at the buzzer.
Davis made all three freebies at the foul line to give his team a 24-14 lead at the break.
“It was a big part of the game and made our chances of pulling this off a little lower,” Krumwiede said. “A lot more things happened other than that last play at the half.”
Carrollton came out strong for the first two minutes of the third quarter by cutting Gibault’s lead to seven, but a Garrett Rueter trey erased it.
The two teams traded baskets for the rest of the frame and Gibault led 36-25 going into the fourth quarter.
It was at that point that Gibault’s height and outside shooting finally overtook Carrollton for good.
Jacob Rueter put the dagger into Carrollton when he connected on his second trey of the game to give Gibault a 45-27 lead with five minutes to play.
Gibault’s biggest lead of the game was 50-30.
The Carrollton seniors were 74-17 during the time when several of them were impact players on or off the bench.
Overall they were 92-29 during their four years on the team and have several positives to revel at.
“I think there’s a lot of schools in the area that would like to look at that,” Krumwiede said. “A couple regionals and a couple of conference championships. 27-5 and a sectional last year and graduated 3,000 points. We were able to come back and go 23-8 and get back to the sectional. That I think is a big positive to look at.”
Of course basketball or sports in general isn’t everything and Krumwiede hopes his players learn life lessons through basketball and can implement them after they’re done playing.
“It’s not all about wins and losses, but we hope they became better people,” Krumwiede said. “Better men, better brothers, better dads, and better husbands when it’s all said and done. When they look back at their results on the scoreboard for their basketball experience it certainly is an impressive one.”
As Gillingham was subbed out and walked off of a court for the last time wearing a Carrollton Hawks jersey it was a good and bad moment.
“Walking off the court was bittersweat. I’m sure it will hit me tonight going over the last four years and everything we’ve accomplished here,” Gillingham said. “If I could play hear forever I would. It’s the greatest place to play in the world in front of Carrollton.”
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