GREENFIELD - March Madness doesn’t start in eight days, but it kicked off in February at Greenfield High School Monday night.
Carrollton Hawks head coach Jeff Krumwiede described this game as a regular first-round contest in the NCAA Tournament, and it was exactly that. Ten days ago the Hawks and Calhoun Warriors met up in Carrollton, and the home team dispatched the Warriors 76-58. However, Calhoun beat Carrollton 58-51 in the Beardstown Tournament third-place game.
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“These are two evenly matched teams. It was proven when we split in the regular season, and it was two teams who didn’t want their seasons to end,” Krumwiede said. “It was as good as an atmosphere as you’ll have on a Monday night in a regional around the state.”
It was most likely going to be closer this time around, and it went right down to the wire with the higher seeded Hawks coming out on top 58-56 in the first round of the IHSA Class 1A Greenfield Regional. Jerrett Smith scored the game-winning basket with 13 seconds remaining as he drove down the lane for an open layup that gave Carrollton a two-point lead.
“It was awesome,” Smith said. “I hadn’t been able to do that all year. Being able to take point and beat people off the bounce back in junior high and freshman year. I knew once I made that we had all the momentum and we were going to win.”
Smith finished with 20 points and ten rebounds to lead the Hawks. He was followed by Jeremy Watson’s 12 points while Brenden Settles and Jacob Stendebeck each tallied six points.
“I wish we would have shot a lot better and not made it so exciting but give Calhoun a lot of credit they came out and played very hard in the first half,” Krumwiede said.
For most of the season and all of last season, Smith has played primarily as a forward, but Coach Krumwiede decided to shake things and give younger players playing time and give Smith point guard duties and a green light to shoot.
“At the beginning of the game and the end Smith was able to get to the basket,” Krumwiede said. “That’s what lifted us, and he carried us in the first five minutes and the last two minutes. He was a senior that wanted to keep playing.”
Calhoun led for the vast majority of the game with a couple of sparse leads by the Hawks. The Warriors had a balanced scoring output. Easton Clark led with 14 points, and Jared Brackett came shortly behind with 12 points. Wes Klocke, who spent a significant portion of the game on the bench because of foul trouble still recorded 11 points.
“We were doing what we needed to. I didn’t think we were playing exceptional tonight and both teams were playing rather sloppy,” Calhoun head coach Ryan Graner said. “We got a little bit more physical down the stretch; we made a few silly turnovers that knew better than to make. Unfortunately, we made too many of them this year.”
“We were down for most of the time, but coach kept telling us to keep fighting back, and we’ll start hitting shots,” Jeremy Watson said. “Our defense started to step up, and we started to force turnovers and hitting shots.”
The first quarter was fast paced and the two teams combined for 40 points. Smith scored ten points with a combination of mid-range shots and layups. The Warriors, who committed 23 turnovers in the previous contest against the Hawks 1-3-1 defense, learned from their mistakes and found life easier this time by finding cutters and open lanes for layups and fouls.
Smith and Clark, who scored eight points in the first quarter were not as productive for the rest of the game, but lively nonetheless.
After Klocke was whistled for his second foul late in the first quarter, the Warriors led 22-18, but the Hawks went on a 10-4 run and took a 28-26 lead with seemingly all the momentum. After a Calhoun timeout, the Warriors finished off the quarter on a 9-2 run, including seven points by Brackett in the quarter.
“They missed that wide open three at the buzzer that would have put them up eight, and that was what we needed was some hope,” Krumwiede said.
Despite not hitting the buzzer beater, Calhoun came out hot in the second half scored six straight points to build their run up to 15-2 and led 41-30. That would be the biggest lead of the game and when Carrollton came alive shooting wise. Senior Lane Schnettgoecke came off the bench and knocked down a triple and then Jayce Arnett connected from downtown on the next possession to pull the Hawks to within six at 45-40 and trailed 48-42 going into the fourth quarter.
“We didn’t get it done until Schnettgoecke took the lid off the basket for us,” Krumwiede said
From there on out the game was tightly contested with Carrollton getting the lead down to four, but Calhoun answering with a bucket or a free throw. With under six minutes to play the score was 52-47 Calhoun and with a little over two minutes to play it was 53-49. It was almost virtual standstill as they combined for three points.
“It was such a struggle to score tonight for us with so many good open looks, and we just struggled with it,” Krumwiede said.
On the other side, although the lead was slimmer than it was before, Graner was feeling positive about his team’s chances.
“I liked where we were at,” Graner said. “I thought there was some calls down the stretch that didn’t negatively impact the game overall, but they were crucial situations when they occurred. It gave [Carrollton] a little added momentum off of the momentum they already created. But it still comes down to it; we make free throws at the end like we were supposed to then they’re playing catch up. It’s a whole different ball game.
The Warriors shot 12-for-25 (48%) from the charity stripe and 2-for-7 in the fourth quarter when it mattered most.
Carrollton scored to get the score to 53-51 and then forced a jump ball with the possession arrow in their favor and proceeded to tie the game up at 53 with under 90 seconds to play. On the following Calhoun possession, Klocke scored on a close-range shot, and Carrollton failed to reply swiftly. However, sophomore Nathan Walker tied the game up again with 50 seconds to play on a layup off of a loose ball. The atmosphere was high, and the roof was threatening to come off.
“It was amazing,” Watson said. “The energy was insane. If we played like that for four quarters, we would dominate every game.”
On the following possession, Carrollton was called for a reach-in foul on Clark, and he went to the line for two shots but missed both, which opened the door for the Hawks to take the lead. After a timeout with 32.6 seconds to play, Carrollton had the choice to hold for one or take an earlier shot if the opportunity was there. It was a simple selection for the Krumwiede.
“Coach K called that play for me, and I don’t know whether if he intended to hold it or for me to just go when I wanted to, but I just went because a basket is better than holding for a turnover or overtime,” Smith said. “I took it and I’m glad I did.”
“I didn’t want to stop the momentum, and we had a little bit of it. We thought we could see what we could get if it was early in the possession and didn’t want to slow things down and stop whatever momentum we built up in the process of cutting the lead.”
Were the Hawks feeling any nerves to hold off Calhoun in the dying seconds?
“Just a little bit but that goes away when you start playing,” Watson said.
Calhoun called a timeout as soon Smith’s basket went in to give Carrollton a 57-55 lead with 13.5 seconds to play. Clark dribbled down the baseline and was fouled by Walker with 7.5 left and could tie the game if he made both shots, but missed the first and made the second.
Carrollton did a good job of running out the clock and almost did until the Warriors fouled Watson with 1.9 left on the clock for a 1-and-1. He made the first and missed the second, and Calhoun didn’t get off their desperation half-court shot in time.
“We knew Calhoun was going to be more prepared for us and we spent the week preparing for them too, and it was a great game,” Watson said.
Calhoun’s season ends at 12-15, and it’s tough to see it end in the manner they went through last night.
“They’re devastated,” Graner said. “It hurts but like we talked about you can’t continually make the same mistakes and more importantly shoot below fifty percent in these close games and expect to win them.”
Carrollton knocked off their rivals from Hardin, and they advance to play their other rivals, the No. 2-seeded North Greene Spartans in the semifinals. They have beaten the Hawks twice this season. The first game was in White Hall (56-46) and the second in the Beardstown Tournament (59-52). Carrollton will be sure not to make it easy in the slightest the third time around.
“It’s hard to beat anybody three times, and we have that advantage,” Smith said. We have to play out best, but they also have to come and play our best too.”
Graner believes this is the most open regional he’s ever been apart of and thinks anybody can win it if they play near to their potential.
“If you string together three above-average games you got a chance to win it. We’ve played with or beaten every team in this regional. It’s wide open as I’ve seen in my years of coaching.”
For Krumwiede, the Hawks have to improve for them to have any chance.
“We were 26-of-66 from the field and 3-of-10 from the line and we still won the game. It was because we had five turnovers but if we’re going to get any farther we have to play better. We have to believe we have a chance. We’re definitely the underdog, but we’ll embrace that.”
