Pils thrills as Libertyville clips Carmel

Carmel coach Tim Bowen had this game analyzed correctly.

"We won all of this game except the final three minutes,'' Bowen said. "You don't get these games very often."

Libertyville made a furious comeback at the visitors from up the street, but a Brandon Motzel free throw with nine seconds to play gave the Corsairs a 3-point lead at 71-68.

With 2.3 seconds to play, Libertyville hero Griffin Pils stepped to the foul line. He had been fouled trying to hit the game-tying 3-pointer.

Of course, he made all three, sending the game to OT.

Pils had 5 points at halftime. The senior had 35 after halftime.

That's not a misprint. Pils made 19 consecutive free throws on the way to 40 points.

Libertyville (12-6) erased a double digit Carmel lead in the final minutes. In overtime, Pils nailed eight more free throws in overtime to help the Wildcats pull out an 83-76 classic.

"In the first half, I was trying to get everyone involved,'' Pils said. "And then the shots kept falling. I was in a zone."

Bowen's Carmel team seemed to have this game in hand. The Corsairs (7-9) had a few brilliant moments as well in building a 16-point lead in the first half.

In a two-minute spurt, it looked like the Corsairs had taken over for good. Sophomore Ian Kristan (16 points) hit consecutive 3-pointers. Joe Molloy followed that with a 3 of his own. Molloy backed that up with a 3-point play. Nickai Poyser (15 points) also had a 3-point play.

When Motzel (23 points) went one-on-one and flipped a shot in, the Corsairs' lead was 37-21.

"That was us not playing defense,'' said Libertyville coach Scott Bogumil. "That was Kristan shooting and Motzel scoring. But we refused to lose."

The Pils show didn't really kick off until the four-minute mark of the fourth quarter. A Motzel 3-point play seemingly salted this game away.

The Carmel lead was 62-49 with four minutes to play.

All that did was officially wake up Pils. The senior hit the trifecta in 3-pointers and his steal and bucket completed a personal 11-point run. It took less than a minute and his club was back in the game.

"We always seem to be behind,'' Pils said. "We just keep on playing. And we started to press them."

Carmel's Bowen was disappointed that his young players let this one slip away. But he wasn't faulting their effort. Three Carmel players fouled out.

"We have a lot of young kids,'' he said. "And they made some simple mistakes. We got a little tentative. But we played hard."

Bogumil noted he had not seen a performance like Pils' in his time at Libertyville.

The Wildcats had 19 points from Ellis Matthews. Jack Deichl chipped in 12 points.