Winchester Invitational Tournament: Wolf’s free throw allows Eagles to survive crazy ending against Panthers

WINCHESTER, Ill. — Cannen Wolf thought he had a little bit of wiggle room.

When the official handed him the basketball, he discovered there was none.

Fouled as time expired as he caught an inbounds pass and attempted to launch a 3-point shot, the Liberty boys basketball team’s senior guard assumed the call came in the act of shooting and resulted in three free throws. Actually, the foul was called against Central’s Nick Moore on the catch, sending Wolf to the line for a 1-and-1.

The significance in the difference? Wolf figured he had three chances to make one free throw to win the opening game of the Winchester Invitational Tournament. Now he had just one.

“The ref hands me the ball and says, ‘It’s 1-and-1 now since it was on the floor,’” Wolf said. “I was like, ‘Oh, OK.’ I was pretty calm.”

It showed. With no one standing on the lane and no time on the clock, Wolf buried the free throw to give top-seeded Liberty a 42-41 victory over ninth-seeded Central on Saturday morning.

“We did not want that game to go on any further thank it had to,” Wolf said after the Eagles beat the Panthers for the third time in four meetings this season. “Free throws win championships and win games. That’s what (Liberty coach Greg Altmix) has been preaching for a while now. That right there is a fine example, a very good example.”

It added the punctuation mark to a wild finish.

“It was the craziest .6 seconds I’ve seen in my life,” Altmix said.

Liberty, ranked seventh in Class 4A, led 41-40 coming out of a timeout with 29.8 seconds remaining in regulation. Central took another timeout with 17.7 seconds remaining, ultimately getting the ball in the hands of junior guard Breyhar Wiskirchen on the final possession.

Wiskirchen drove the middle of the lane and had the Eagles’ Logan Robbins block the shot from behind and out of bounds. Wiskirchen stumbled to the ground along the baseline, and Robbins said something to the Panthers guard before reaching down to help him up.

What Robbins said was considered taunting by the officials, and they assessed him a technical foul with six-tenths of a second remaining.

“Logan should have kept his mouth shut,” Altmix said. “But people who know Logan just have to laugh. He blocks the shot, says ‘Take that,’ and then bends over to help him up. In the refs’ mind, I’m sure they saw it as Logan standing over him. If you know Logan, he was just going to help him up.”

It sent Moore to the free-throw line with the chance to win the game while the rest of players gathered at midcourt.

“My teammate, Clayton Obert, was taking wagers,” Wolf said. “He was talking to (Central’s) Keaton Dickhut and was like, ‘What’s the prediction here?’ Dickhut said, ‘Well, it’s Nick. He’s going to make both of these.’ Clayton was like, ‘Aww, he’s got to miss at least one, right?’

“It’s a heat-of-the-moment kind of game. And sure enough, he makes one and misses the other.”

Moore made the first free throw to tie the game at 41, but his second attempt bounced on the rim three times and rolled off the left side of the rim.

There was still plenty to take place.

On the ensuing inbounds play from midcourt, Dickhut tried to throw a lob to the Panthers’ Isaac Genenbacher, but the ball sailed over everyone and fell out of bounds without being touched. It gave Liberty the ball at midcourt.

Unfortunately, Altmix was out of timeouts after burning his final one prior to Central’s inbounds play.

Without the chance to set up a play, the Eagles ran Wolf toward the inbounder, off a couple of screens and to the far wing. Reese Knuffman tossed the pass over the top, and Wolf caught it and tried to get off a shot while drawing contact from Moore.

Breiton Klingele led the Eagles (13-3) with 12 points, and Devin Klauser added 11. Wolf finished with nine. Wiskirchen led the Panthers with 15 points.

“I thought today we took a step in the right direction,” Altmix said. “I felt like we had been spinning our wheels for the last two weeks. … It just seemed we couldn’t get our footing and get really moving. I’m hoping today is one of those gritty wins where we were able to grind a victory out and gives us a boost moving forward.”