‘I knew we weren’t going to give up’: Central-Southeastern overcomes 16-point deficit to repeat as State Farm Holiday Classic champs

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. — The Central-Southeastern girls basketball team is becoming pretty good at playing from behind.

Eleven days ago, the Panthers trailed Quincy Notre Dame 27-2 but had two chances to win the game in a 35-31 loss. Twenty-four hours before playing in the small school girls bracket championship at the State Farm Holiday Classic, CSE trailed 7-0 after three minutes to Kankakee Bishop McNamara but rallied for a 39-25 semifinal victory.

So when the Panthers trailed Galena 24-8 with 85 seconds left in the first half of the title game Saturday, it was understandable for them to believe they would still win.

“It makes it special for sure,” Karly Peters said after CSE rallied to win 45-40 at Illinois Wesleyan’s Shirk Center. “But I really want to avoid it in the future because it gives the crowd some nerves.”

The Central-Southeastern faithful had reason to be nervous.

The Pirates (14-1), ranked No. 1 in the Class 1A poll, used a 1-3-1 zone to flummox the Panthers into 4-for-18 shooting and 11 turnovers with 1:25 remaining in the first half. CSE then scored eight straight points — a spin move by Lauren Miller, two free throws each by Brilyn Lantz and Agnes Gengenbacher, and a 17-footer by Peters — to make the halftime score 24-16.

“We were down by a lot, but I knew we weren’t going to give up,” Peters said. “It kind of just felt like we weren’t really trying hard, but toward the end of the second quarter, we kind of started to get play like ourselves again.”

“(Panthers coach Matt Long) obviously was not very happy with us,” Lantz said.

Long said he remained confident his team would make a run.

“Walking out with them (after halftime), hearing what they were saying, the head nods, I knew we were going to be OK,” Long said. “But I still felt like the first half was a disaster. I mean, we didn’t do anything we talked about. In the second half, we came out and did the things that we’ve been taught to do. 

“We have a saying: ‘Be who we are.’ In the first half, I just didn’t think we were who we were. I thought we backed down. I thought (Galena was) the toughest team on the floor. I thought they were getting all the 50-50 balls, and they outrebounded us. That’s not who we are. We just simply laid that in (the girls’) lap. Don’t pretend to be somebody you’re not.”

Central-Southeastern’s man-to-man defense forced Galena to play faster in the second half. The Pirates turned the ball over eight times while missing 17 of 24 shots from the field.

Peters’ offensive rebound basket at the end of the third quarter got the Panthers within 32-28. That basket launched a run of 10 unanswered points. Two free throws by Lantz tied the score with 7:04 to play, and a driving basket by Peters at the 6:24 mark put CSE ahead for the first time since it was 2-0.

An offensive rebound basket by Miller, followed by a layup by Miller on an assist from Lantz, put CSE ahead 38-32. Taylor Burcham broke the drought for Galena with a baseline jumper with 4:27 on the clock.

The back-breaking basket for Galena came on CSE’s next possession. Peters dribbled near the Panthers’ bench to hand the ball off to Lantz, then circled toward the basket to catch a pass from Lantz.

However, as Peters went to the basket, CSE assistant coach Jordan Harris yelled, “No! No! No!” He saw two Galena defenders in the lane and wanted Lantz to hold on to the ball.

“(Harris) was trying to tell me it wasn’t going to be there,” Lantz said with a grin. “But I just know Karly, and I know what she’s capable of. I knew she was capable of jumping and getting it.”

Peters caught the pass between the two defenders but was knocked off balance. As she fell to the floor, she blindly tossed the ball at the basket for a miraculous shot to put CSE ahead 40-34.

“I knew (the pass) wasn’t open, but I had to go meet the ball because I saw the girl right next to me,” she said. “I knew I had a little bit of an opening on the right, so I kind of did a little right-hand layup thing. I didn’t really see the basket, so I put a little spin on it because I didn’t get all the way over to the right.”

Galena got within four points twice and three points once in the final 2:18, but Central-Southeastern used its four-corner offense to drain 50 seconds off the clock on one possession and 34 seconds on another. Lantz made 5 of 6 free throws to seal the victory.

“I really wanted to be the one who got fouled this year, with it being my senior year,” said Lantz, who finished with 13 points.

Peters scored 16 points to lead Central-Southeastern (12-2), which won its third gold ball in tournament history. Miller, who made the all-tournament team, added 10.

As exhilarating as the comeback was, Long would rather avoid them as the season proceeds.

“If a start like that happens in the postseason and carries on for half the third quarter, we’re going home,” he said. “We have to guard against that, and we have to get better. We have to understand that. We have to be prepared not to have letdowns like that early in a game.”