50 After 50: No. 16 Cardinals dominate during regular season, but perfect season ends on overtime buzzer beater

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. 16 — 1986-87 Hamilton

HAMILTON, Ill. — Mike Kayvan hadn’t seen Gary Belger, his high school basketball coach, in more than 20 years until Belger visited last summer at the bar and grill Kayvan owns and operates in Keokuk, Iowa.

Belger has coached in Illinois, Missouri and Florida and has compiled more than 600 victories in his career. He coached Joe Wieskamp, who starred at the University of Iowa and now plays for the San Antonio Spurs, when he was at Muscatine (Iowa).

“Coach gave me the scoop on what he had been doing,” Kayvan said. “We talked for a while, and he gave me a hell of a compliment, because he’s coached some great players. He said I was the best pure shooter he ever coached. That meant a lot to me for him to say that.”

Kayvan didn’t play with the 3-point arc in high school basketball (which was implemented the next season). However, he still was one of the best players on one of the best teams ever to come out of Hancock County.

Before the season started, coaches considered Hamilton the class of the West Central Conference and a team with a realistic chance of making a trip to the Class A state tournament. The Cardinals returned three starters — Kayvan, Paul Meinhardt and Willie Miler — who combined for more than 40 points per game as juniors for a team that finished 17-9 but lost five games at the buzzer.

“We went to Culver-Stockton and played in the team camp the summer before my senior year. We just dominated everybody,” Kayvan said. “You had the three of us back and then we had (6-foot-6) Marc Richardson and Bryan Buckert. We were senior-dominated.

“We had played together since we started playing. Growing up, we never lost in junior high. We never lost in grade school. You get into high school, and everybody starts going different directions on different teams, but we knew we were going to be good. We knew it was going to be a special year. We had nothing but a state championship on our mind.”

The Cardinals weren’t deep, typically using only 6-foot-4 junior Bart Rogers off the bench.

“(The starters) played pretty much all the time, which didn’t bother me any,” Kayvan said with a laugh. “I enjoyed it. I hated when (Belger) took me out.

“We knew we weren’t going to have much of a bench. For us, it was your best players going out there, and (Belger) got us in shape. He was hard-nosed. I mean, he ran us and ran us, and we didn’t need a break. We never got tired. He put us in that condition knowing that we were going be on the floor pretty much the whole game.”

Hamilton took a 5-0 record into the Macomb Western Holiday Tournament and opened with a 61-45 victory over Mason City. The Cardinals then defeated once-beaten Pittsfield 62-53 in the quarterfinals and Orion 60-56 in the semifinals. Meinhardt poured in 39 points in the championship game, an 86-81 decision over Canton (Ill.).

Hamilton also captured the Hancock County Tournament, routing LaHarpe 81-22 and beating Warsaw 73-54 to reach the championship game. Robertson had 16 points and 16 rebounds to help the Cardinals improve to 12-0 with a 53-50 over Southeastern.

The Cardinals rolled through the rest of the regular season, with only a 59-57 victory over Beardstown counting as a close shave. They finished the regular season ranked No. 5 in the Class A state poll. Their average margin of victory was 21 points per game. Only six teams came within 10 points during the regular season. Kayvan averaged 18 points, Meinhardt averaged 18.1 points and Miler averaged 13.7 points.

“Put them in the NCAAs, and the rest of us could have a pretty good regional,” Warsaw coach Dan Lucey quipped in The Herald-Whig before the postseason started.

Kayvan had 24 points in Hamilton’s 64-38 victory in the regional opener against Sciota Northwestern. Colchester was no match in the semifinals as Hamilton cruised 89-50. Meinhardt scored 26 and Kayvan added 19.

The regional championship game turned out to be a slugfest. The Cardinals only led by two points with 4:50 remaining in the game and held on for a 60-56 victory over Dallas City.

Payson Seymour threw another upset scare at Hamilton in the sectional semifinals at Bushnell. The Cardinals led by 10 points in the fourth quarter but missed the front end of five one-and-one free throw situations. The Indians trailed 52-50 with 22 seconds left. However, Kayvan turned in an old-fashioned three-point play to provide the cushion in a 55-54 victory.

Hamilton had a rematch with Beardstown in the sectional title game, and the score was tight throughout, with neither team taking more than a five-point lead. Terry Morrow made a five-foot shot in the last minute of regulation play to put the Tigers ahead 61-59, and Beardstown’s 6-foot-8 Matt O’Hara blocked a shot by Miler, grabbed the rebound and was fouled.

O’Hara missed the front end of a one-and-one, and with three seconds left, seldom-used Brad Richardson threw a long pass to Meinhardt, who banked in a shot as time expired to force overtime.

“(Richardson) was in there because he could throw a baseball pass really good,” Kayvan said.

The Cardinals had a chance to win in overtime. With score tied and seven seconds remaining, Miler threw a pass intended for Kayvan that went out of bounds.

“I was supposed to come off the wing to the other wing, off a double screen, and catch the ball and shoot a jumper,” Kayvan said. “I came around, and Willie came around the top of the key to my side. As I start to come out, here comes Bart. He jumps out to the wing for some reason. I see him jump out, like he’s wanting the ball, so I cut backdoor. Willie let the ball go, and it went out of bounds.”

After a timeout, Beardstown then moved the ball up the floor to Morrow, who drove the lane and made a layup with one second left for a 65-63 victory.

Hamilton’s season ended with a 29-1 record.

“We decided to set up a full-court press, which I still don’t agree with this day,” Kayvan said. “They set up a play, and whatever they did, Morrow got wide open for a layup.

“It was devastating. Only loss of the year, and to lose like that. There was a lot of crying. When we put the work in for that, stay together like that, go to all the camps and stay dedicated to it … it was there. It just didn’t happen.”

Beardstown eventually placed fourth in the Class A state tournament.

Belger left after two seasons in Hamilton to take a job at Brainerd (Minn.) Junior College (now known as Central Lakes College), and he took Miler, Meinhardt and Kayvan with him. Belger now is the boys basketball coach at Regina High School in Iowa City, Iowa, and his teams have won more than 625 games during his career.