Defeats in regional and sectional games led to heartache and dismay.

This program had been to the threshold many times since finishing second in the state back in the first year of two-class basketball in Illinois but never could reach the top of the mountain.

However on Friday night in the championship game of the Norris City-Omaha-Enfield Class 1A Sectional – the ghosts of disappointments past were vanquished with one fantastic performance.

Led by Cameron Ballard and Joshua Jones with 19-points each and a defensive effort that kept Trico off-balanced and confused for most of the night – Meridian upended the ABV top-ranked Pioneers, 63-58, in front of a near capacity crowd at NCOE.

Head coach Jeff Mandrell had been around for many of those recent setbacks in big games but he saw his club come up huge in the biggest game of their lives as the Bobcats reached the “Elite Eight” for the first time since that 1972 team finished second in the state.

Meridian weathered every storm thrown at them by Trico in the second half to hold on for the win.

“When we threw the ball away a few times there late and it (failures of the past) did cross my mind and I thought 'Oh No' but these kids are tough and they just made the plays,” said Coach Mandrell. “I told them just remember if we take care of the ball and make free throws we will hold on.”

Using its athletic ability to run the floor and its quickness and length to disrupt Trico's offense – Meridian saw its record improve to 28-5 on the season with the victory.

The Pioneers saw their season come to a collapsing end with a glaring deficiency showing up in the scorebook.

Coach Shane Hawkins' state-ranked and highly regarded club had struggled shooting free throws this season but on 30-occasions the Pioneers were good enough to survive.

Win 31 “wasn't to be” following a 10-of-25 showing from the charity stripe.

Trico failed to capitalize on the Meridian first half foul troubles and each run that they made fell short of completing the comeback.

“This was a carbon copy of what happened to us last year against them in the sectional. We turned it over a couple of times early and never got comfortable with the speed of the game. We always played too fast,” said Coach Hawkins. “We got stuff to the basket but we couldn't finish. And when we did get to the free throw line we couldn't make them (Meridian) pay for it.”

Six-foot-six junior Chase Heins led the Pioneers with 16-points while Taylor Pyatt added 10-points.

High scoring 6-foot senior guard Jesse Smith closed his stellar prep career with eight points.

Heins and Smith – leading scorers all season for Trico – combined to miss 10 of those foul shots.

The shortcomings at the foul line were just part of the storyline.

Trico came out of the gate with way too many mistakes – most of them caused by a disrupting Meridian match-up zone defense that neutralized any advantage the Pioneers may have had from the outside.

A 10-0 run by Meridian broke the game's only tie (2-all) as the Bobcats forced a Trico timeout at 12-2 with 2:44 remaining in the first quarter.

Jones scored a pair of baskets in that first big Meridian burst with a pair of drives in the lane and when junior forward Jerry Johnson grabbed an offensive rebound for a score – the Bobcats were “purring” with a 10-point lead.

“They (Trico) are good. They have won 30-games and they are going to make shots and they are so good defensively and I felt good early because we got some good shots against them,” added Coach Mandrell. “My fear was that they would come out and ball pressure us and we would throw up some bad shots and we would get behind. But we set the tempo we wanted because we got those good shots. After that I thought that we would be able to play because our defense was good. We did what we needed to do.”

To their credit – Trico never folded the tents at any point where they trailed by double-digits.

The Pioneers scored the final five points of the first quarter to close to within 17-13 at the end of one.

Taylor Pyatt – a 6-foot-3 senior forward – scored twice on a tip-in and later on a drive to the basket after getting a pass from senior Tyler Coleman just before the buzzer to cut the lead to just four points.

But just when Trico was ready for a big run to take control of the game – the free throw problem appeared.

During the second quarter alone – the Pioneers missed nine free throws (4-of-13).

Those missed opportunities – like an albatross around its neck – kept Trico from getting back the lead.

After allowing the Pioneers to get to within 24-17 with Smith and reserve senior forward Logan Thies scoring on consecutive trips up the floor – Meridian scored six straight points to push the lead back to over ten.

Seniors Brent Kennedy and Daryl Rayford each collected buckets and a fast break score by Jones pushed the lead to 30-17.

Trico made yet another brief offensive scoring jaunt but more missed free throws stopped the sprint in its tracks.

Trailing 35-26 Jesse Smith was fouled while attempting to shoot a 3-pointer by Rayford who picked up his third foul on the play.

The normally good shooting Smith hit just 1-of-3 attempts as Trico trailed by eight heading into halftime.

Trico appeared to have gotten on track when they started the third quarter on a 5-0 run to cut the Meridian lead to just three points.

A drive to the basket by Coleman and a 3-point bomb by Dylan Witthoft cut the deficit to just 35-32.

But – like all of the runs on this night by Trico – Meridian answered with points of its own.

The Bobcats closed the low scoring quarter with an 8-2 run with Ballard scoring five of those points.

His 3-pointer from the left corner and teammate Jerry Johnson's made basket closed the frame at 43-34.

Jones – a 6-foot-4 sophomore forward – showed no signs of youth on this night as he again hit a big shot in the fourth quarter.

His long 3-pointer from the right corner pushed Meridian's lead back to double-digits at 46-36 with under a minute gone in the final stanza.

Trico's final push for the lead came up short but it wasn't without merit.

An 8-0 burst with Pyatt, Witthoft, Smith and reserve Daron Meyerhoff all scoring baskets got the Pioneers faithful excited for a miracle finish at 58-54.

However Meridian – unlike Trico – made their free throws when they counted the most.

Ballard closed out the game – with help from Jones – by hitting four-consecutive free throws (5-of-6 combined).

When this 5-foot-10 junior guard hit his final two of the night with :04.8 left – the Bobcats had secured its spot in next Tuesday's Salem Class 1A Supersectional.

“We had opportunities and that is the most discouraging part,” added Coach Hawkins. “You can't consistently play like that (from behind) and expect to win. We wanted to get off to a good start to build confidence. You have to capitalize on their mistakes and we didn't do that. Give them (Meridian) a lot of credit. They are very athletic and they played very hard. As much as we try to prepare for it, we don't see that in the summer.”

In a couple of statistical categories these two teams were nearly even as neither team shot the ball well from the field and each team committed 13-turnovers.

Trico finished 23-of-60 overall and just 2-of-16 from behind the arc while Meridian was 24-of-60 and 4-of-16 from 3-point land.

But the difference in the contest turned out to be the free throw shooting.

While Meridian didn't set the world on fire from the foul line – they did manage to make 11-of-20 and 5-of-6 late when they needed it the most.

After being state-ranked for most of the season and the ABV top club from January on – the Trico splendid campaign closed with the disappointing loss.

Meridian will now tackle Woodlawn – a 52-38 winner over Red Hill at the Altamont 1A Sectional – Tuesday night at Salem.

“I saw them (Woodlawn) at the Sesser tournament and I was impressed,” finalized Coach Mandrell. “They are like a baseball team – they are good up the middle with the point guard (Verhines) and the big kid (Wiggs) in the middle. They're well coached and play good defense.”