Depending on age, high school basketball fans in this corner of the state will pick one of two games as having the most exciting finish ever in a March Madness game played in Lake County.
The old-timers will vote for North Chicago High’s Rufus Woods beating the buzzer and Waukegan with a shot that won a regional title in the 1960s in which he was falling into the fourth row of the bleachers as he was throwing up the game-winner.
Newbies will go to Waukegan High beating Warren in the 2009 sectional final in Waukegan’s Dog Pound gym when Warren’s Brandon Paul hit three free throws to put the Blue Devils ahead in the closing seconds, only to have the home team flip the script on Jereme Richmond’s halfcourt miracle shot at the buzzer.
Both of the those moments will be remembered for as long as there are prep basketball fans in Lake County. But now, thanks to YouTube and the internet, hoops fans can relieve yet another amazing finish to a March Madness game — this one involving Libertyville and Carmel in the regional semifinals in Warren’s old “pit” of a gym in March of 1985.
Google YouTube, and then search for Libertyville vs. Carmel basketball. You get to watch the final minutes of a 61-60 Carmel win that actually triggered the Corsairs first-ever run to the Sweet 16 supersectional what then was a two-class state tournament.
And when you’re watching, have the stopwatch on your iPhone ready. You need it because the announcer says “there are eight seconds left” when Carmel has the ball down 60-59 and is advancing the ball. Spoiler alert: Carmel scores the winning basket (61-60 final) either 7.4 seconds after the TV announcer says there are eight seconds left to play, or maybe it’s 8.4 seconds later.
In any case, you’ll see the Carmel players storming the court to celebrate the comeback win, and you’ll see the Libertyville players storming the court to celebrate holding on for the win.
The cause of the chaos was that with the fans screaming in Warren’s “pit,” it’s impossible to hear when the final horn sounds. It either sounded just before the game-winning shot, or just after.
The refs voted for after, and Carmel went on to win the regional and then the first sectional title in school history.
That comeback win was then-Carmel basketball coach Frank Belmont’s pick as the most memorable moment of the Corsairs’ two-year run of postseason basketball success.
Last Friday night, those two teams were feted in style with a reunion celebration that started before Carmel’s varsity game against St. Patrick and continued through halftime of that game.
And though Carmel lost to St. Pat’s 67-42 to fall to 11-14 on this season (St. Pat’s is 14-6, 3-3 in the East Suburban Catholic Conference), the large number of fans on hand thoroughly enjoyed turning back the clock 30 years.
Nearly every player from the 24-6 1984-85 team (the one that beat Libertyville to start its tourney run) and the 18-12 1985-86 team were on hand, along with Coach Frank.
Belmont’s been retired from teaching at Waukegan High for five years, but still serves as a substitute teacher when called upon. He coached seven seasons at Carmel, stringing together five winning seasons before leaving to coach at what was then Waukegan West High.
He was succeeded by Scott Rosberg, who won regional titles in 1991 and 92, the last two until the Corsairs won back-to-back regionals again in 2013 and 2014 under Tim Bowen. Last year’s Carmel team finished 25-9, breaking the school record for wins in a season set by the 1984-85 team.
Here were Coach Frank’s thoughts on Friday night’s reunion:
On getting everybody back together: “The response was amazing. We spent a long time working with the people at Carmel on this event, and they were just fantastic.The cooperation of the alumni people, the marketing people, (athletic director) Andy (Bitto) in the athletic department was outstanding, and the guys (from the 84-85 and 85-86 teams) responded. Being able to reach out through social media didn’t hurt either.”
On his favorite memories of the two seasons: “People gave me several videos tonight, and the game is up on YouTube We were down by nine against Libertyville with 1:30 remaining and came back and won. I remember sitting on the bench as they went up by nine.The (final) play is embedded in my mind. I remember thinking, ‘This team has accomplished so much this year, and it was going to end in the first game of the state tournament,’ but they stuck together, got some great contributions off the bench, and pulled it out.
“The next year, we brought back very little experience. We lost a very large percentage of our meaningful statistics in terms of points, rebounds, and minutes. The team didn’t really come along until the last two or three weeks of the season, but then they had just a great run in the state tournament. I remember telling that team, the night before the supersectional game in Elgin that we lost to Evanston (71-65), what a great pleasure it was to watch that practice that night, and the privilege it was to be able to coach a great team.”
On Lake County high school basketball: “I still follow it.WIth so much available now on the internet with the Cube and things like that, I watch a lot of games that way.”
On Carmel’s recent success in basketball: “They had two really good teams, and I’m happy I got the chance to seem them perform. It was good to see the team experience the success that they did.”
Bitto pointed out the tremendous impact that Belmont’s two Sweet 16 teams on the school.
“From a historical perspective, that team kind of brought Carmel into the new age of athletics. After that, all of our sports started taking off: football, soccer, gymnastics, baseball, track, boys volleyball, girls volleyball, tennis,” Bitto said.
“From where we were then in terms of the number of coaches and the type of school we were — a high academic school that wasn’t really looked upon as an extracurricular sports kind of school — to a school that now excels in both, these guys were a part of that.When they came out I said, ‘Look at the banners up in the ceiling.’ When they were here, there were only a handful. So, they were the beginning of a 30-year run of athletics here.We’ve been very fortunate.It had to start somewhere, and they’re all good guys.”
The current Carmel basketball coach is Zack Ryan, and this is Year 1 for him.
“It was great. We were trying to explain to our guys the importance of history and how good those teams were,” he said. “That was before their time, and even before mine, but it was great to see those guys. They had some big guys. Honoring them at halftime was cool. I just wish we could put on a better show for them. You live and you learn, and you come back tomorrow hard and try to fix what needs to be fixed.”
Freelancer
