Peters’ third quarter takeover, Miller’s late free throws propel Panthers to regional title

CARTHAGE, Ill. — Karly Peters heard Central-Southeastern girls basketball coach Matt Long loud and clear.

With the Panthers trailing Petersburg PORTA 25-23 at halftime of Friday’s Class 2A Illini West Regional title game, Long’s message to Peters was short but powerful.

“I told her, ‘It’s go time. Let’s go,’” Long said.

Much of that encouragement stemmed from the Bluejays’ aggressive defense on Lauren Miller, the Panthers’ reigning all-state forward.

“We had a feeling they were going to run a junk defense on Lauren, try to disrupt her, and we were fine with that,” Long said. “It was time for Karly to take over.”

Takeover mode was activated. Peters scored 10 points, made a tie-breaking 3-pointer and drained a buzzer-beating triple in the third quarter to help the Panthers take a six-point lead into the fourth quarter — a lead they did not relinquish on their way to a 45-41 victory at the Illini West High School gym.

“That was hype,” said Peters, who led the Panthers with 18 points.

Top-seeded Central-Southeastern (28-3) advances to Class 2A Waverly Sectional where it will face second-seeded Staunton

The top-seeded Panthers (28-3) will face No. 2 seed Staunton (27-5) in the Waverly Sectional semifinals at 6 p.m. Tuesday. The Bulldogs beat Alton Marquette 43-28 in the Gillespie Regional championship.

“I don’t want it to end,” Peters said. “I’m going to do everything I can to make sure it doesn’t.”

That includes making playes on the defensive end, too, most notably by blocking a layup attempt by PORTA’s Regan Heubner with the game tied at 29 and four minutes left in the third quarter. Peters finished that sequence by making a go-ahead three with 3:35 left, sending the CSE crowd into a frenzy with Peters delivering a fist pump and an adrenaline-filled yell.

“I was pretty fired up,” Peters said. “We didn’t really have much going before that, so I’m glad I could do something to get my team going a little bit.”

Peters one-upped herself by hitting a three from nearly the same spot at the buzzer, doubling the Panthers lead to 37-31.

“That was huge because it gave us momentum going into the fourth,” Long said. “We’re big on having the momentum going into the quarters. We want to score first every quarter, and we want to score last every quarter so we have the momentum. Luckily she knocked that down. I had a good view of it, and I thought it was down all the way when she released it.”

PORTA trimmed the deficit to one multiple times in the fourth quarter, the latest of which came on an Aubrey Vogel layup with 1:32 left. Miller made the second of her two free throws 20 seconds later to push the lead back to two, where it stayed for nearly a minute.

Peters missed a pair of free throws with 43.5 seconds left. On PORTA’s next possession, Carson Athalony missed a baseline jumper. Peters corralled the rebound and passed the ball to Miller, who was fouled by Vogel with 13.5 seconds left.

As Miller stepped to the free-throw line, she gave herself a pep talk while taking some deep breaths to calm her nerves.

“I was just telling myself it needed to happen,” Miller said. “I missed a couple before that, so I needed to make up for that. I tried to stay composed. Once you get a little anxious, your hands start to shake, you’re not fluid in your mechanics, so you just have to stay composed, just like a normal free throw.”

Miller sank both free throws to give the Panthers a four-point cushion, and after Arthalony airballed a 3-pointer on the other end, CSE’s third regional title in the last four seasons and 15th in program history became official.

Miller immediately found Peters and gave her a big hug, grinning from ear to ear.

“We’ve been through it all together,” said Miller, who finished with 12 points. “She’s my best friend. We’ve been playing together since we were little, so it’s definitely special. And she had an amazing game, so to be in that moment was pretty special. Senior season, our season’s on the line, it’s just special.”

Peters said that hug was one filled with relief that she and Miller, both seniors, can continue their final basketball journey together.

“It was special,” Peters said. “With it being our senior season, we know it could be done at any moment. We’re just glad to get every opportunity we can moving forward.”

The six-point lead the Panthers had entering the fourth quarter was their largest at any point in the game. 

“We knew it was going to come down to the end,” Miller said. “They were going to keep fighting. They just kept inching closer and closer, so we knew we just had to get stops, run out the clock, and take care of the ball, not let them get a steal and score, steal and foul. We just had to take care of the ball. I think that shows the experience of our team being in those tough situations, having that postseason mentality. Every possession matters.”

Long hopes the battle the Panthers and Bluejays waged on Friday prepares his team for more similar, if not tougher, tests down the road.

“You have to go through the battles to understand what a battle’s about. Tonight was a perfect example of that,” Long said. “Some battles are pretty easy. Some battles are just elementary fights on the playground. This was a hand-to-hand combat battle all night long, and we needed that going into the sectional.”