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It shouldn’t have happened.
With 1.2 seconds left and the score tied, Frontenac head coach Doug Barto drew up a play for the in-bound pass and the last-second shot. The play was not designed for Brett Macary.
But he got the pass. And, although he was draped by a Viking defender, he got off the shot 10 feet beyond the three-point line.
“I really didn’t think it was going in,” said Macary, a Raider sophomore. “When I got the pass, I thought I had more time than that, so I stopped a bit. I had to avoid the man, and just put it up.”
The look on his face after the three-pointer swirled in, and as his teammates and classmates swarmed over him, said multitudes about how incredible even he thought the shot had been.
It was a relief for Frontenac boys head coach Doug Barto to see his boys clinch a 49-46 victory.
“That last shot, I didn’t even know that he was going to shoot,” Barto said. “The play we set up, he was something like our fourth option. It was just a good job by him.”
It had been an exciting fourth quarter even before the last-second heroics. With the score tied at 42 with a few minutes left, Bacary got the ball in the low block and faked toward a baseline cutter before swinging toward the lane for the go-ahead bucket.
Northeast then began to foul to get the ball back, which is when Northeast’s Cole Robinson took over a bit. After Blake Barto nailed two free throws to give Frontenac a 46-42 lead, Robinson stormed back, hitting a quick shot to narrow the lead to two. After a pair of missed free throws by Frontenac, Robinson hit a reverse layup and was fouled with 5.4 seconds left. He missed the free throw that would have given the Vikings a one-point lead. Instead, Macary hit the miracle shot.
“Northeast kept chipping away; they made some good plays,” Barto said. “We knew we had to get on Chase [Cleland, who scored 15 points for the Vikings]. He’s my nephew, so I knew we had to cover him and J.T. Richardson. They had some other guys that stepped up and played hard. After the timeout, we were tied up and there were 1.2 seconds left. The last thing I told our guys was not to do anything silly, and don’t turn over the ball.”
It shouldn’t have happened.
With 1.2 seconds left and the score tied, Frontenac head coach Doug Barto drew up a play for the in-bound pass and the last-second shot. The play was not designed for Brett Macary.
But he got the pass. And, although he was draped by a Viking defender, he got off the shot 10 feet beyond the three-point line.
“I really didn’t think it was going in,” said Macary, a Raider sophomore. “When I got the pass, I thought I had more time than that, so I stopped a bit. I had to avoid the man, and just put it up.”
The look on his face after the three-pointer swirled in, and as his teammates and classmates swarmed over him, said multitudes about how incredible even he thought the shot had been.
It was a relief for Frontenac boys head coach Doug Barto to see his boys clinch a 49-46 victory.
“That last shot, I didn’t even know that he was going to shoot,” Barto said. “The play we set up, he was something like our fourth option. It was just a good job by him.”
It had been an exciting fourth quarter even before the last-second heroics. With the score tied at 42 with a few minutes left, Bacary got the ball in the low block and faked toward a baseline cutter before swinging toward the lane for the go-ahead bucket.
Northeast then began to foul to get the ball back, which is when Northeast’s Cole Robinson took over a bit. After Blake Barto nailed two free throws to give Frontenac a 46-42 lead, Robinson stormed back, hitting a quick shot to narrow the lead to two. After a pair of missed free throws by Frontenac, Robinson hit a reverse layup and was fouled with 5.4 seconds left. He missed the free throw that would have given the Vikings a one-point lead. Instead, Macary hit the miracle shot.
“Northeast kept chipping away; they made some good plays,” Barto said. “We knew we had to get on Chase [Cleland, who scored 15 points for the Vikings]. He’s my nephew, so I knew we had to cover him and J.T. Richardson. They had some other guys that stepped up and played hard. After the timeout, we were tied up and there were 1.2 seconds left. The last thing I told our guys was not to do anything silly, and don’t turn over the ball.”
Frontenac took the lead for good in the second quarter. Down 17-19, the team stormed back on an 8-1 run to take their largest lead of the game, seven points. But Northeast kept hitting their big men inside to whittle the lead.
Macary tied for the team lead with Blake Barto on Friday with 12 points each.
Northeast was led by Cleland with 15 points, but Jon Baker scored 11 points and Richardson added 10 for the Vikings.
Frontenac (9-6, 1-1 CNC) will play at home against Galena on Tuesday.
Raiders 64, Vikings 16
Northeast won the opening tip on Friday and scored an easy bucket to take a 2-0 lead. That was the last time in the game that anything came easy.
Frontenac would not allow the Vikings to score again in the first quarter, opening up to a 17-2 lead by the end of the quarter.
“We were in sync with our defensive rotation,” said Frontenac girls head coach Jeremy Rakes. “We played a lot of girls, and we tried some different matchups. We were seeing some good things out of the kids. Now we have a few girls get the confidence to knock down a few shots.”
It was a balanced performance all around for the Raiders. While the team was led by Meghan Winden’s 11 points, the team had six players score at least six points. That was balanced by defensive pressure, as Winden had six steals, and Jennifer Long took five of her own.
“If you look at our season stats, we average 1-2 scorers in the double digits, but we’ll have a bunch of people score four, five, six or eight. We average 59/58 points per game. That comes off our defensive pressure. We had a lot of five- and ten-second calls tonight.”
The team had a good night on the glass, too, with Bailey Flora, Taylor Seward and Lindsey Gorham grabbing eight, seven and seven rebounds respectively.
“That was one of the game plans, to start hitting the boards,” Rakes said. “I haven’t been pleased by our effort lately inside. We were real nice tonight. We went in at halftime, I think, with 19 offensive rebounds, and they just added to that in the second half. The steals came with the aggression on defense.”
While the team had a 33-8 lead at halftime, the Raiders were not done yet. They opened the second half with a 14-0 run, stretching the lead to 47-8 by late in the third quarter.
The Raiders (14-1, 2-0 CNC) would finish the game strong as well, capping off the game with a 15-2 run. They will play Galena at home on Tuesday.
Ryleigh McCartney also scored in double figures for the Raiders with 10 points, and Kenzi Tims led the Vikings with eight points.
Frontenac boys 49, Northeast 46
NEHS 17 9 12 8 — 46
FHS 17 14 7 11 — 49
NORTHEAST (46) — Chase Cleland 6 3-4 15, Jon Baker 4 3-3 11, J.T. Richardson 5 0-1 10, Cole Robinson 2 0-1, Cody McCloud 2 0-0 4, Noah Popejoy 1 0-0 2. Totals: 20 6-9 46.
FRONTENAC (49) — Macary 5 0-1 12, Barto 4 3-3 12, Keith Lollar 3 0-0 6, Dylan Clark 2 2-2 6, Avery Coronado 2 0-1 5, Matt Standlee 1 0-0 3, Nick Zafuta 1 0-0 3, Devon Keith 1 0-0 2. Totals: 19 5-7 49.
Frontenac girls 64, Northeast 16
NEHS 2 6 4 4 — 16
FHS 17 16 14 17 — 64
NORTHEAST (16) — Kenzi Tims 4 0-0 8, Kaylee Bogina 2 0-0 4, Jazmin Nunn 1 0-0 2, Jessica Choate 1 0-0 2, Morgan Maransani 0 0-2 0. Totals: 8 0-2 16.
FRONTENAC (64) — Meghan Winden 5 0-2 11, Ryleigh McCartney 3 4-4 10, Amanda Cicero 3 0-0 7, Libby Warrick 3 1-2 7, Andi Palumbo 3 0-0 7, Sam Bonner 2 0-0 6, Bailey Flora 2 0-1 4, Haley Wilson 1 0-0 2, Jennifer Long 1 0-2 2. Totals 23 5-11 64.
