He starred at Hinsdale Central and then went off to Marquette, and now Brian Wardle stood at Allstate Arena minutes after his last collegiate appearance in his sweet hometown of Chicago. It was just the kind of occasion that can unnerve a performer, just the kind of moment that can push a performer to try too hard.
But Wardle did not succumb to that temptation; instead, he played with poise and precision while leading his Golden Eagles to a 20-point rout of DePaul on Saturday afternoon.
“It was special,” Wardle said. “When you come home for the last time you want to play well, but most of all you want to win. I played well and we won, so it feels great.”
Wardle scored 19 of his game-high 27 points in the final 20 minutes.
“He really took [DePaul forward Bobby Simmons] to school in the second half,” Demons coach Pat Kennedy said.
Said Wardle: “You’ve got to give credit to our point guard. He’s my good buddy. We’ve been playing together a long time. He got me the ball.”
Cordell Henry may have gotten him the ball, but Wardle knew just what to do with it. Never did he panic when Demons guard Imari Sawyer was playing him tight in the first half, nor did he respond when various Demons clawed at him, bumped him and tugged at his shirt.
He continued playing stoically within his team’s offense. When Simmons took over on him for the foul-plagued Sawyer, Wardle simply ripped him apart. He was 8-of-10 in the second half, 11-of-16 for the game. He was 3-of-4 on his three-pointers in the second half, 5-of-6 overall. And his foul-line jumper with the score tied at 32 ignited the Marquette run that clinched the game.
“We told our kids, if Brian Wardle and Cordell Henry get [free], that’s how Marquette beats DePaul,” Kennedy later said. “We let them get [free], and those kids controlled the basketball game.”
