03-06-13
BY SETH WHITEHEAD
FOR A BASELINE VIEW.COM
JACKSONVILLE –

An alley-oop slam by Payson-Seymour’s Gage Klitz got the Jacksonville Bowl rocking just a few seconds before.

Considering the Trojans were trailing 37-35 at that point, the situation seemed bleak for the state’s fifth-ranked team. Payson went on a 14-3 run with Bourney on the bench after picking up his second foul in the second quarter, after all, as the Indians turned an early six-point deficit into a four-point lead.

But it turns out, the Trojans were right in their comfort zone.

“The more adversity they have put in front of them, the better they get,” said Madison coach Jaime Cotto-Rodriguez, whose team got used to playing tough teams in front of even tougher crowds throughout the regular season.

With their leader relegated to the bench, Madison managed to regain the lead by the end of the third quarter. Bourney then returned with a vengeance in the fourth, scoring 11 of his game-high 26 points in the final frame to help send the Trojans back to state with a 66-60 victory.

Madison (20-10) will meet the winner of today’s DeKalb Super-Sectional — Lanark Eastland or Newark — at 12:15 p.m. Friday at Carver Arena. The Trojans will look to improve on 2010’s third-place finish after disappointing sectional-round losses the past two years.

“It’s wonderful,” Bourney said of returning to state. “We needed this one. To bring (a state trophy) back to the city of Madison means a lot to me.”

Madison looked like it might cruise to a victory early on, thanks to the combination of Bourney and dominant board work against the Indians (27-5). Bourney scored the Trojans’ first eight points and Madison grabbed 10 offensive rebounds in the first quarter alone, as it enjoyed a 17-11 advantage after eight minutes of play.

But Payson wasn’t about to go quietly in its first-ever super-sectional appearance.

The Indians caught fire in the second quarter, hitting 10 of 11 shots after Bourney picked up his second foul early in the frame. A Jake Voss 3-pointer capped a 14-3 Indians run that suddenly had Payson up 25-21.

Bourney stopped the bleeding with a 3-pointer after returning to the game on Madison’s next possession, but a Voss jumper just before the buzzer had Payson leading 33-31 at intermission. The Indians wound up scoring 22 points in the second quarter.

“I was like, ‘Our calling card is to play defense, and we give up 22 points?’” Cotto-Rodriguez said. “That’s unacceptable.”

Payson kept the momentum in its favor at the start of the third, as Klitz scored the first basket of the second half and countered a dunk by Bourney with his aforementioned two-handed slam on a lob from Lance Buhlig.

Bourney picked up his third foul at the 4:36 mark and did not return to the game for the remainder of the frame. But unlike the second quarter, his team excelled with him on the pine this time around, with reserve Quincy Ware leading the way.

Ware immediately scored a basket in transition after Bourney left the game, setting up a see-saw final four minutes of the third quarter. The Trojans managed to grab a four-point advantage at the end of the frame, as Tyvon Powers’ fast-break layup off a steal gave the Trojans a lead, and Ware followed with a dribble drive to the basket for his third bucket in four minutes.

“Quincy was huge,” Cotto-Rodriguez said. “Quincy, to me, had the six biggest points there at the end of the third quarter. I thought that won the game.

“We fell apart a little there (without Bourney in the second quarter), but we didn’t make the same mistake twice.”

Bourney re-entered the game at the start of the fourth and promptly hit a turnaround jumper. He followed with a free throw and a one-handed slam off a steal to cap an 11-0 run that had Madison up 51-42 with 6:21 to go.

But Payson quickly countered with a 3-pointer by Voss and simply would not go away.

After a DiJon Bryant putback made it 55-49 Madison, a Cody Hildebrand 3-pointer made it a one-possession game with 3:22 to go. It was a trend that would continue for the next two-plus minutes.

A Bourney 3-pointer at the 2:46 mark looked like a dagger for the Trojans, but Hunter Flesner countered with a three-point play for Payson at the 2:26 mark.

A Bourney baseline jumper gave Madison a 60-55 lead with 1:25 to go, but Klitz and Buhlig came back with their second spectacular alley-oop connection of the half to make it a three-point game. The brash play — the kind one might not see a Division I team trailing by five points late attempt, much less a Class 1A prep team — took everyone in the building by surprise, Cotto Rodriguez included.

“That’s a big play by their coach to call a lob play at that time,” Cotto-Rodriguez said. “… A couple times, I was like, ‘Alright, we got a little cushion,’ but they wouldn’t die.”

Powers hit a pair of free throws for Madison on its next possession, but a long Voss 3-pointer cut Madison’s lead to just two, 62-60, with 52 seconds to go.

Payson then had a chance to take the lead after Bourney missed the front end of a one-and-one on Madison’s next trip down. But the Trojans forced a crucial turnover, and Madison’s calling card throughout the game — dominant offensive rebounding — helped the Trojans finally put the Indians away in the closing seconds.

Bryant hit the front end of a one-and-one following the turnover, and Bourney ended up corralling the miss on the second attempt after the ball was tipped out of the paint by a teammate. Bourney was fouled and made 1 of 2 attempts to make it a two-possession game again, and he came up with another big rebound after Payson came up empty on its next possession, getting fouled in the process.

Bourney missed out on an opportunity to put the Indians away completely, missing both of his ensuing free throw attempts, but Bryant pulled down the Trojans’ 17th offensive rebounding of the night on the second miss and went up for a game-sealing putback.

Madison had a 34-19 advantage on the boards on the night, as Bryant (11 rebounds, nine points) and Deontay Starnes (10 rebounds, seven points) led the way. Powers added six rebounds and Bourney had five.

“That’s our calling card,” said Cotto-Rodriguez, whose team had 19 offensive rebounds in its sectional title win against Waterloo Gibault. “We’re going to pound you on the boards and we’re gonna play D. And we’re gonna score off our D. We had one bad quarter of defense, but the rest was pretty good.”

Bourney’s big numbers were even more impressive considering he played just 23 minutes. He made a point to make up for lost time in the fourth.

“I told them all, ‘I owe you all for the third quarter, so I came out and gave it my all in the fourth,” Bourney said. “I just did everything I could to get us to state.”

The Payson duo of Hildebrand and Voss was as good as advertised, combining for 41 points, while the 6-4 Klitz was an impressive specimen on both ends of the floor.

The Indians shot 50 percent from the floor, but could not overcome the huge rebounding deficit and 5 of 13 foul shooting.

“It came down to giving up too many offensive rebounds, 50-50 balls and missed free throws,” Payson coach Brian Rea said. “I wish them the best of luck. We’re just as good a team as they are, but we made some critical mistakes at the wrong time.”

The Trojans were impressed by Rea’s team, which will bring back three starters in Voss, Klitz and Flesner next year.

“I knew they were gonna come out here and fight, because nobody wants to go home,” Bourney said. “I know they were going to give us a tight game. And I respect them, because that was a good team.”

Now, after a season of countless grueling road trips, the Trojans will embark on another long journey, one they feel they’ve prepared themselves to take — the nearly three-hour trek to Peoria.

“It’s like I tell ‘em, ‘You wanna win these big plaques? You’re not gonna win them at home, and you’re gonna have to get on a bus for two or three hours, so let’s just get used to it now,” said Cotto-Rodriguez of his team’s demanding schedule, which featured several large-school teams in far-away localities.

“Our schedule’s so tough. We’ve played in big arenas like this and in front of big crowds like this. That’s why we play the schedule we do, to get us ready for these moments. No one in 1A plays our schedule. No one in 1A will travel three hours to play a regular season game. So when we have to get on a bus and travel two hours, that’s nothing to us. It’s like a normal day.”

Madison (66) – Meitzenheimer 0 2 0-2 6, Bryant 4 0 1-4 9, Powers 2 1 2-2 9, Ware 3 0 0-0 6, Borney 9 2 2-6 26, Dixon 1 0 1-2 3, Starnes 3 0 1-3 7.
2FG-22, 3FG-5, FT-7-17, PF-16.
Payson-Seymour (60) – Hildebrand 9 1 0-2 21, Voss 4 3 3-6 20, Klitz 4 0 1-3 9, Buhlig 1 1 0-0 5, Fleasner 2 0 1-2 3, Speckhart 0 0 0-0 0.
2FG-20, 3FG-3, FT-5-11, PF-15.
Fouled Out – None.
Technical Fouls – None.