Crim: Miller’s 30-point fourth quarter remains one of finest performances in state postseason history

It has been exactly 39 years and Rusty Miller still can’t explain how he managed to score 30 points in a single quarter of a high school regional tournament basketball game.

“I’ve had people come up to me over the years and ask, ‘How in the hell did you do that?’ ” he said. “Wish I could explain it. It’s kind of shocking when you think about it, especially because it was the fourth quarter and there was no 3-point line back then.

“You hear people talking about being in a zone. I didn’t hit anything in the first half and then the hoop looked like a swimming pool. The hardest part is telling people you lost the game.”

Barry held on to defeat Camp Point Central 84-73 in the first-round Class A regional game in The Pit on Feb. 21, 1983, but only after withstanding one of the finest individual performances in Illinois high school history.

Miller, a 5-foot-10 senior guard, scored 30 of Central’s 40 points in a marathon fourth quarter, including its final 15. His three-point play with 39 seconds to go pulled the Panthers, who had trailed by as many as 17 points in the period, within 77-71.

“When we cut it to six, there was a glimmer of hope if (the Tigers) miss their free throws,” Miller remembers. “Then it went sideways.”

Greg Motley hit two free throws two seconds later and Brian Kendall added a free throw and a fast-break layup to seal it for Barry.

Miller, who missed all four field goal attempts in a scoreless first half, made 13 of 20 shots in the second half and was 11 of 12 from the free-throw line to finish with 37 points.

At the time, his 30-point outburst was the fourth-highest total in a single quarter in Illinois history, and the most in a postseason game.

“I swear, everything he shot went in,” Bill Jacquot, Barry’s coach that night, told me in an interview for The Herald-Whig on the 10^th anniversary of the game. “It makes it look like we didn’t play much defense, but we didn’t want to foul and stop the clock. We were telling our players to get their hands straight up and not foul.

“Rusty was putting his head down, going to a spot and shooting. I didn’t realize he was scoring that much because we were scoring, too.”

It was a rebuilding season for Central, which entered the regional with an 11-13 record.

The Panthers graduated nine of their top 12 players from a team that won 22 of 27 games the year before and owned regular-season victories over the other six teams in the regional before squandering a nine-point lead to lose to Liberty in the semifinals 52-51. The loss in 1982 came five nights after they had beaten the Eagles by 28 points on the road.

“We should have gone a long way,” Miller said. “We had kids on the bench who would’ve started for a lot of teams in the area that year.”

Miller, the sixth man on that team, and Charlie Simmons were the only returning players with much varsity experience. Simmons went on to average 19.7 points per game during the regular season and Miller 18.

“We thought we would still be able to compete that year,” said Miller, now 56 and the area marketing manager for the energy division of Prairieland FS. “We lost some close games and had some good wins, too. We just never jelled as a team.”

Central had beaten Barry in the regional in each of the previous two seasons and posted a 51-49 victory over the Tigers five weeks before the 1983 regional began.

“We wanted to play Quincy Notre Dame (in the semifinals) so bad,” Miller said. “We looked past (Barry) and they took care of us. We weren’t ready for them.”

Central made only 6 of 26 field goals in the first half and trailed 26-16 at halftime. Barry extended the advantage to 46-33 entering the fourth quarter — officials ruled Miller’s three-quarter-court basket was released after the buzzer sounded to end the third period — and were up 52-37 with under seven minutes to play.

That’s when Central’s coach, the late Rich Meyer, in what would be his final game on the bench, decided his team would foul the Tigers on every possession and hope they missed enough free throws to allow the Panthers to cut into the deficit.

“He was banking on getting back in the game by making them hit free throws,” Miller said of the strategy. “And by God, they hit them.”

Barry sank 28 of 37 free throws in the final quarter and 42 of 56 overall. The two teams combined to attempt 50 free throws in the fourth quarter alone. With the game clock stopped repeatedly, the final period took 45 minutes to play.

“As a referee myself for 37 years, that had to be a terrible game to call,” Miller said. “Terry Robertson was working that game. Every time I would see him, he would have to bring that up.”

Central’s two big men — 6-4 center Jim Taylor and 6-2 forward Ed Johnson — were in foul trouble all night and exited early in the fourth quarter. Then Simmons, who scored 18 points, joined them on the bench. That left it up to Miller to carry the offensive load.

“We ran a halfcourt offense,” Miller said. “We weren’t a running team. With everybody who could score out, I had the mindset that I had to do something to get us back in this thing. I knew my career was going to be over if we don’t come back. I just took the ball to the hole.”

Of the 11 baskets Miller made in the fourth quarter, all but two came from inside the free-throw line or on short baseline jumpers. He also drew five fouls and hit 8 of 9 free throws.

As the clock wound down less than two minutes to play, Miller scored 15 points in a 69-second span before fouling out in the waning moments, the last coming on a jumper from the free-throw line. Central could never get closer than six points.

At the time, the 78 points Central and Barry combined to score in the final quarter was the highest one-quarter outburst in Illinois history. It has since been eclipsed.

Miller played football for two seasons at Culver-Stockton College. He started officiating basketball his sophomore year and continued until last season, working primarily alongside Bob Baucom and the late Tom Ernst. He worked three state finals.

“I always said I would quit when it became a job and wasn’t fun,” he said. “We had to deal with COVID, had to wear masks, I was busting my ass to get home from work to get to a gym. Tom got killed (in a car accident in July 2020).

“I enjoyed it. It’s a good game. I just decided to take some time off from it.”

And every now and then, someone will bring up that game 39 years ago when for one quarter Miller was “in a zone” and “the hoop looked like a swimming pool.”

“The last basketball game I ever played,” he said. “What a way to go out, I guess. Would have been a better story if we had won.”