With the game tied at 51, Marquette Catholic called timeout with 29.7 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. The Blazers proceeded to try and bleed the clock for a last-second shot, but Patrick had other ideas. He was closely guarding MC’s Vaughn Rael-Kludt just past midcourt in front of the Blazer bench. Fronting him with 6 seconds left, Patrick knew his team had a foul to give so he took a chance, reached for the ball and Rael-Kludt lost control of it. It rolled free briefly before Patrick picked it up with 4.4 seconds left. When teammate Gage Riffle saw Patrick come up with the steal he took off in front of the Marquette Catholic bench equal to the Blazer foul line.
With his back to his basket, Patrick dished to Brady Wood, who was about 60 feet from his bucket at MC’s top of the key. With 3.4 ticks to go, Wood passed the ball to his left and hit Riffle in stride. He caught the ball in front of the Triton bench with 2.9 seconds remaining just outside the key on his end of the floor. Riffle then took one dribble and started to elevate with 1.9 seconds to play. The ball left his hand with 1.5 seconds left, went off the backboard and through the net with 0.4 to go.
Game over and the celebration ensued.
Triton won 53-51 in what had to be the most amazing finish in school history. As the buzzer went off, Riffle had already sprinted to the Triton student body and jumped into its arms.
“Landon Patrick, the Master of Chaos, got that steal and I knew anything could happen,” recalled Riffle of the game’s final sequence. “I just ran the court like I’m used to. The buzzer went off as soon as it went in and I was ecstatic. I really can’t comprehend it.”
Patrick, who had eight assists in the game, added, “We knew they would try and get it to (junior guard Josiah Mays) or No. 0 (Rael-Kludt), it would end up in one of their hands. We knew they would try to dribble it out until the time had started to expire. We figured there would be a ball screen so we needed to get some action. We tried to shut that down. I got a piece of the ball. It went through my hands and through my legs. I felt the kid (Rael-Kludt) grabbing on to my leg so I knew I couldn’t go anywhere. I saw Brady Wood running down the court so I got it to him and knew he could make a play and he did. It was all in slow motion really. I get chills just thinking about it. I just remember turning around, seeing Gage get the ball and smiling ear to ear.”
Wood admitted that the last play was like an out-of-body experience.
“I wasn’t even thinking,” said Wood, when asked about what was going through his mind after Patrick passed him the ball. “I saw Gage open and he finished it off.”
And as the ball went through the bottom of the net, Wood said, “I felt chills. I finally heard the crowd for the first time in the game. It was unbelievable, a great feeling.”
As the final score would indicate, this was a classic. Riffle and his fellow seniors have been a part of 75 total wins and he said this one was the greatest of his career.
“It was such a good game,” he said. “We knew it would be a nail-biter. To win it this way is the greatest thing ever.”
Triton coach Jason Groves has won 369 games in his 21 years at Triton, but Saturday’s thriller is right up there with the best of them.
“I don’t think I’ve ever won that way, with a steal in transition at the buzzer,” he said. “Our kids made plays all night long when they needed to.”
Interestingly enough, when Patrick stole the ball, Groves thought about calling a timeout, but quickly reconsidered.
“When he gave it up and I saw Gage sprinting, I said, ‘Nope,’” admitted Groves, whose team improved to 23-3 on the season. “I looked up at the clock to see if we had enough time to get a shot off and we did. I was just hoping and praying Gage would put it in. He’s really fast and has explosive speed. Credit to the kids for finding one another on that play.”
The game was a see-saw affair.
All of Triton’s points came on shots from the field as it was 0-for-2 from the foul line. Marquette Catholic was 16-of-17 from the stripe. The Blazers dominated on the glass, outrebounding the Trojans 28-13, including 15-1 on the offensive end. That led to MC outscoring Triton 20-2 in second-chance points.
With numbers like that, it’s hard to believe Triton prevailed, but it did. The Trojans won the game because they shot so well. They finished 23-of-36 from the floor (63.9%), including a blistering 7-of-12 from 3-point territory (58.3%). In the first half, Triton shot 70% (14-of-20) from the floor, knocking down 5-of-8 triples (62.5%) and led 33-29 at the break.
No one shot it better than Wood. He was awfully good, finishing with 18 points on 7-of-11 shooting and hitting all four of his 3-pointers.
“Before this game I told myself, ‘I’m made for this and I’ve worked my whole life for this,’” Wood said. “I had a lot of confidence.”
Triton was struggling in the third quarter to find its offense. More than four minutes into the frame, the Trojans hadn’t scored and trailed 37-33 as a result of a 8-0 run by the Blazers. Heading into the fourth quarter, Triton trailed 41-37.
Wood started the frame by swishing a 3-pointer and Patrick tied it (43-43) with a triple of his own with 4:47 to play. It was his only points of the game.
Later in the stanza, MC led 48-47 when Triton’s Julian Swanson scored on a driving layin to give his team a one-point lead. Blazer Nate Bakota then hit a 3 with 49.4 seconds left to put his team up 51-49. But Swanson scored again on a drive to tie it at 51 with 29.7 seconds left, setting up the fantastic finish.
Marquette Catholic’s Mays led all scorers with 19 points, going 9-for-9 from the foul line.
• TRITON 53, MARQUETTE CATHOLIC 51
Class 1A Regional 26 championship
At North Judson-San Pierre
TRITON: Landon Patrick 1 0-0 3, Jamison Swanson 1 0-0 2, Julian Swanson 6 0-0 13, Jayden Overmyer 4 0-2 8, Isaac Quintana 0 0-0 0, Gage Riffle 4 0-0 9, Brady Wood 7 0-0 18. TOTALS: 23 0-2 53
MARQUETTE CATHOLIC: Vaughn Rael-Kludt 2 2-2 6, Aleks Pecoski 2 0-0 5, Josiah Mays 5 9-9 19, Andrew Pleasant 2 0-0 4, Nate Bakota 3 5-6 13, Ryan Dailey 2 0-0 4. TOTALS: 16 16-17 51
Score by quarters
Triton 13 33 37 53
Marq. Cath. 11 29 41 51
3-pointers: Triton 7 (Wood 4, Patrick, Ju. Swanson, Riffle), Marquette Catholic 3 (Bakota 2, Pecoski). Fouls (fouled out): Triton 16 (none), Marquette Catholic 9 (none).
Records: Triton 23-3, Marquette Catholic 19-8 (final)