BOWLING GREEN — With a little less than six minutes remaining in Wednesday night’s regional semifinal matchup between Cardinal Stritch and Grandview Heights, the Cardinals appeared to have the game locked up with a 14-point lead.
Over the next two minutes, that lead evaporated to one point, as the Bobcats went on a 13-0 spurt.
With their season on the line, the Cardinals responded and used a big run, propelled by Little Anderson, to regain the lead and ultimately seal a 63-58 win.
Anderson, who led the way with 19 points and six rebounds for Stritch, hit a 3-pointer after the Cardinals called a timeout to expand the lead back to four points, 55-51.
Two plays later, after a layup from Joey Holifield, Anderson got out in transition and exploded for a two-handed rim-rattling dunk. The play, which gave Stritch a 59-51 lead with 52 seconds left, actually put the game on lock this time.
“During that stretch I was telling myself to get down in a stance and play tough defense,” Anderson said. “I think that's how I scored those buckets.”
Right before that stretch, coach Jamie Kachmarik had gotten after Anderson for getting beat to a loose ball, something that was atypical of the 6-3 senior.
“The thing that Little brings to our team is energy,” Kachmarik said. “Once I jumped on him, next thing I knew, he hit the 3 and then had the dunk. The minutes and energy he plays with are instrumental.”
Besides Anderson’s 19, Stritch also had big offensive nights from Joey Holifield, who ended with 15 points, and Jordan Burton, who had 14. Each also added in three assists, and Holifield had six rebounds.
As a team, Cardinal Stritch (23-3) used efficient shooting to help build their lead up throughout the second and third quarters.
The Cardinals shot 57.1 percent from the field (24-of-42), while the trio of Burton, Anderson, and Holifield shot 60 percent (18-of-30).
“Us three know that we have to score for our team to win,” Burton said. “We've been doing it all year.”
The ability of the trio to spread out Stritch’s offense is what made it difficult for the Bobcats on the defensive end of the floor.
“Give them credit, those kids made a lot of great plays for them,” Grandview Heights coach Ray Corbett said. “They're a guard-oriented team, and their guards played extremely well tonight.”
The back-and-forth first half contained 11 ties and two lead changes.
During the final two minutes in the second quarter and with the game tied at 28, the Cardinals went on an 11-0 run that was capped by a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Burton that was shot at least 10 feet back from the 3-point line.
The play gave Stritch momentum heading into the second half, and it led by 14 heading into the final eight minutes.
Grandview Heights’ (19-7) big fourth quarter run was driven by Manny Day, who scored 14 of his game-high 21 points during the final frame. But the Cardinals did themselves no favors at the foul line during the stretch, as they missed the front-ends of three straight one-and-one free throw opportunities.
“That was six points we just threw away,” Kachmarik said. ”I told them to take a deep breath and relax.”
The message worked, and now, Stritch will play Coldwater for its first trip to the Final Four in program history at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
“It's a huge thing for our community and our program, we've been working so hard since freshman year,” Burton said. “It's just special. We're going to take it one game at a time.”
“The biggest thing is believing,” Kachmarik said. “If they believe in it, they're 32 minutes away, 32 minutes away from doing something Cardinal Stritch has never done.
“But we're going to have to be a little bit sharper, and we're going to have to make free throws. I'll tell you that.”
First Published March 14, 2019, 1:56 a.m.
