It was difficult to tell whether Antioch’s Marshall Gehrke received a louder reaction from the home crowd for his vocal rendition of the national anthem before the game or for his clutch free throw at the end of it.
“There is not much Marshall can’t do, I guess,” Antioch coach Sean Connor said with a laugh. “I know he is in the choir, and he wanted to sing the anthem before that game. So I said, ‘Why not?'”
Gehrke, a freshman forward, finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds as the 12th-seeded Sequoits pulled out a 44-42 win against eighth-seeded Lakes, their Community High School District 117 rival, in a Class 3A Antioch Regional semifinal.
Antioch (12-17) will play top-seeded Lake Forest (25-6) in the regional championship game at 7 p.m. Friday. The Scouts overwhelmed Ridgewood 71-20 in the other semifinal.
Lakes (14-15) had its season come to an end despite a late rally. After the Eagles fell behind 26-7 at halftime, junior guard/forward Tyson Dewey hit a pair of 3-pointers to cut the lead to 43-42 with 59 seconds remaining.
Lakes then had a couple of opportunities to get over the top in the final seconds, but Gehrke’s free throw with 10 seconds left was the last point scored.
“We knew Lakes would make a run in the second half, but luckily we did our job in the first half and then had enough poise in the end to hold on,” Connor said.
Gehrke is known for his basketball talent and his BMX success, but few of the Antioch faithful knew about his vocal skills.
He said he loves singing but was a bundle of nerves while performing the anthem before an Antioch game for the first time.
“I was shaking a lot,” he said. “It was great to hear everyone cheering at the end because I did not know if I was going to make it.”
Gehrke was a lot less nervous during the game, especially as the Sequoits shut out Lakes 14-0 in the opening quarter. He scored 10 points in the first half as Antioch took control.
“I didn’t know when we were actually going to score a point,” Lakes coach Chris Snyder said. “There sure was a lid on the basket for a while.”
The Eagles finally scored their first points with 4:51 left in the second quarter when Dewey, who finished with 14 points, converted a 3-point play to cut the lead to 15-3.
Lakes’ struggles continued for the rest of the half as the Sequoits put the clamps down defensively.
“We knew we needed to get off to a strong start with our home crowd,” Gehrke said. “Everyone did their job defensively, and when we do that, we can make it tough on our opponents.”
Lakes didn’t go quietly in the second half, however, outscoring Antioch 20-7 in the fourth quarter. Dewey and junior guard Cade Primack, who had 14 points, led the way.
“Our team showed their heart,” Snyder said. “We could have packed it up and gone home in the first half, but we kept at it and almost pulled it out.”
Antioch’s road gets more difficult Friday. Gehrke said the Sequoits don’t mind being the underdog once more against highly regarded Lake Forest.
“We just have to worry about playing our game and not worry about who we are playing,” he said. “We have pulled together before, and that’s what we have to do again.”
Darren Day is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun.
