50 After 50: Facing lofty expectations and high state ranking, No. 12 Saukees accomplish list of goals

The Illinois High School Association created a second class for boys basketball for the 1971-72 school year. The 2020-21 season would have been the 50th year of the boys basketball small-school tournament. Muddy River Sports is celebrating 50 years of small-school boys basketball by ranking the 50 best teams in Adams, Brown, Pike and Hancock counties since 1972.

No. 12 — 1984-85 Pittsfield

PITTSFIELD, Ill. — The 1984-85 Pittsfield basketball team featured an abundance of talent, experience and depth, and entered the season with lofty expectations.

“We were loaded,” remembers Tim Fischer, a senior forward on that team. “We knew we were going to be good, and everybody knew we were going to be good. 

“We wanted to be the first Pittsfield team to win the Midwest Tournament to start the year, we wanted to win the Macomb tournament (also for the first time) and we wanted to go to Champaign.

“We accomplished all three.”

The only thing missing for a team many still consider the best Pittsfield ever put on the floor was a state tournament trophy.

Fischer was the focal point of most opposing defenses. At 6-foot-7 he could score inside against smaller defenders or step out to the perimeter and be lethal against zones. He averaged 18 points and 8.1 rebounds per game despite missing the first seven games with a broken wrist.

He wasn’t the only offensive threat, however. Jeff Hayden, a 6-3 junior forward, averaged 15.6 points and 8.4 rebounds a game. Phil Hoover, a 6-1 senior forward who Fischer says was “the glue that held the team together,” averaged nearly 11 points and 6.1 rebounds.

Juniors Paul Petty (10 points per game) and Layne Bennett comprised the starting backcourt, with another junior, John Tanner, the first guard off the bench before eventually moving into the lineup during the postseason. Frank McCartney, a 6-4 junior, could spell anyone effectively along the front line.

And, as always, the Saukees were hard-nosed on defense.

“Our team was a team,” Fischer said. “If teams wanted to key on me, fine, Jeff would go nuts. John Tanner was the reason we went as far as we did. Paul won some games for us.

“You don’t worry about stats when you’re playing for coach (Dave) Bennett. We just wanted to win.”

And win they did.

Pittsfield faced its first test with Fischer, who was attracting attention from college coaches after an all-star performance at a five-star camp in Louisville the previous summer, sidelined for the opening seven games. The Saukees’ depth and experience enabled them to win the first six before losing to Winchester, 63-59.

With Fischer back in the lineup, Pittsfield won 12 consecutive games, including a 73-64 victory over second-seeded Mason City — its only loss during the regular season — in the semifinals of the Macomb tournament and a 55-54 victory over top-seeded Princeton in the title game.

Fischer had 27 points, 14 rebounds and four blocked shots against Mason City, which eventually reached the super-sectional round, and 17 points and four blocks against Princeton despite foul trouble to earn tournament most valuable player honors.

However, it was Hayden’s rebound basket off a Tanner miss with five seconds to go that supplied the winning points in the championship game. And the next time Tanner had an opportunity to win a game in Western Hall, he wouldn’t miss.

Chicago Carver ended Pittsfield’s winning streak with a 64-59 victory on Feb. 1. Tim Hardaway, a future first-round draft selection of the Golden State Warriors who went on to have a 15-year career in the NBA, scored 31 points in that game for Carver to offset 24 points by Fischer and 19 by Hayden.

The Saukees, who had risen to third in the Class A state poll, stumbled 11 days later in losing to Beardstown 53-44.

“Everybody was gunning for us, everybody was giving us their best shot,” Fischer said. “It was not easy having a target on your back all year long.”

Pittsfield advanced to the regional championship game to face Griggsville on the Tornadoes’ home court. Griggsville’s seniors had won the state championship as eighth-graders and were gunning for an upset.

“The place was nuts,” Fischer said. “(Referee) Dick Thompson did the game and always talked about it. (Quincy University) Coach (Sherrill) Hanks was there and said it was one of the loudest gyms he had ever been in.”

Griggsville’s defensive pressure forced seven Pittsfield turnovers in the first quarter as the hosts took a 16-10 lead. However, with Fischer scoring 17 of his game-high 33 points (to go along with 18 rebounds) in the first half, the Saukees pulled even at 24-all at halftime and took the lead for good at 35-34 in the third period.

The Tornadoes, however, didn’t go away. They pulled to within 61-59 with 14 seconds left, only for Fischer to beat the press to score a breakaway basket and sink the ensuing free throw to seal a 64-61 victory. Tanner came off the bench to hit three of four field goal tries and all four free throw attempts.

It wasn’t the last close call Pittsfield would have in the postseason. Its final five games were decided by a combined 16 points.

That sent the Saukees to the sectional, where they had been bounced in the finals the previous two seasons, first by Brussels in 1983 and then by Carrollton in 1984.

The opener was against Jacksonville Routt, which featured the talented Kaufmann brothers — junior Kevin and 6-4 freshman Andy. The Rockets, coming off a football state championship the previous fall, used a 14-2 run to close out the first quarter to take a 22-14 lead.

Routt couldn’t contain Hayden and Fischer, however. Fischer scored 14 of his 24 points in the first half to help Pittsfield regain the lead at halftime, 39-36. Hayden hit 13 of 14 shots from the floor and 9 of 12 free throws overall for 35 points as the Saukees pulled away for an 80-72 win.

Pittsfield faced Franklin in the finals, a team it had beaten handily during the regular season.

“If we overlooked anybody in that postseason, it was Franklin,” admitted Fischer, who scored 20 points. “They were hitting unbelievable shots that game. They were keying on Jeff (22 points on 10 of 11 shooting from the field) and I, and Paul beat them.”

Petty, scoreless from the floor through three quarters, hit an 18-foot jumper to open the fourth period and followed with a 20-footer to cut Franklin’s lead to 57-56 with just over five minutes remaining.

His steal and layup seconds later gave Pittsfield the lead for good at 58-57. His two free throws with 18 seconds left enabled the Saukees to withstand a last-second Franklin basket to win, 66-65.

That put Pittsfield in the Macomb Super-sectional against Steve Rothert and Warsaw, which had defeated both Havana and Quincy Notre Dame in its sectional. The game featured 22 lead changes and a heart-stopping finish.

“I would have liked to have played in that game,” said Fischer, who was limited to just 141/2 minutes — and only 1:58 in the second half — before fouling out. “I spent most of the time on the bench.”

With Hayden also saddled with four fouls over the final 11 minutes and scoring just eight points, it was Tanner who came to the rescue.

The 5-11 guard hit 6 of 7 long-range field goal attempts against Warsaw’s tightly packed zone defense to finish with a team-high 18 points. He scored 10 of Pittsfield’s final 12 points to help erase a five-point deficit down the stretch.

Rothert, who finished with 19 points, missed the second of two free throws with 59 seconds left and the scored tied at 47. The Saukees ran the clock down to 20 seconds before calling a timeout to set up a final shot.

The ball wound up in Tanner’s hands with the clock running down.

“I was hunting for somebody to pass the ball to, but I took one dribble and didn’t see anybody,” Tanner told The Herald-Whig after the game. “I knew I had a shot. I was just hoping it would go in.

“I thought (Brad Lucey) was going to block it at first. And when it went in, I lost my heart for a minute.”

The fallaway jumper from the circle, which flicked off Lucey’s outstretched fingertips, hit nothing but net with five seconds to go to give Pittsfield a 49-47 victory and a berth in the state quarterfinals at the Assembly Hall in Champaign for the second time in school history.

The opponent was Hoopeston-East Lynn, a team which had won 29 of 31 games and featured all-state guard Thad Matta on the perimeter and 6-10 center David Busch in the middle.

Matta would later become the winningest coach in Ohio State history, twice guiding the Buckeyes to the Final Four.

“Some of us had spent our whole lives wanting to play on the University of Illinois court,” Fischer said. “We run out of the tunnel and we’re there, fulfilling a lifelong dream.”

The dream became a nightmare in the first half. With Busch dominating the middle, the Cornjerkers opened a 21-12 lead after one quarter and had a commanding 42-26 advantage at halftime.

“I’d like to have that first half back,” Fischer said. “We didn’t show up. I was a complete nonfactor. You don’t get down 16 to a team like that at the Assembly Hall.

“I remember in the locker room at halftime coach Bennett saying all we had to do was get this thing below 10 points. And we did. We came out and gave them a run.”

Fischer scored 18 of his game-high 22 points in the second half and Pittsfield held Hoopeston-East Lynn scoreless during a five-minute stretch in the fourth quarter to pull even at 56-56 with just over a minute to go on a layup by Hayden off a lob pass from Layne Bennett.

However, Busch hit two free throws after being fouled under the basket with 31 seconds left and then Hoover lost the handle on a drive to the basket at the 14-second mark. Kevin Root hit both ends of the bonus after the turnover and the Cornjerkers escaped with a 60-58 victory.

The Saukees shot 65 percent from the floor in the second half and limited Matta to just two points in the final two quarters and 11 overall – 13 below his average.

“It took us a half to wake up,” Fischer said. “Busch’s length caused Jeff problems. No excuses. We got beat. But we should’ve won that game.”

Pittsfield finished with a then-school record 28 victories. The Saukees would finally get their elusive state tournament trophy six years later by winning it all.

Hoopeston-East Lynn would go on to lose to top-ranked and eventual champion Providence St. Mel and Lowell Hamilton in the semifinals before rebounding to finish third.

Fischer went on to play two seasons at the Air Force Academy before transferring closer to home to Culver-Stockton College, where he played his final two years.

He has enjoyed a distinguished business career in Colorado, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, New York City and Atlanta. Now 54, he serves as president of Jackson & Coker Locum Tenens, the third-largest healthcare staffing firm in the United States. The company is based in Alpharetta, Ga.

“Thinking back on the teams we played that year, it was pretty incredible,” Fischer said. “Some of those teams were loaded. Some of the talent we played against made it hard to believe you were talking small-town basketball.”

The debate continues in Pittsfield. Which team was better? The 1984-85 Saukees or the 1990-91 team that won the state title?

“I think we were from a talent standpoint, and we had more competition than the ’91 team,” Fischer said. “But they beat every team in front of them and have the trophy. We were excited for them.

“It was such an honor just to play for the Saukees.”